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: The Legal Intelligencer Blog

Bankruptcy Judge Lifts Stay Over Family Court Architectural Plans

By Brian Harris

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By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

In a bankruptcy proceeding over the the use of architectural plans for a new Philadelphia family courthouse, Bankruptcy Judge Eric L. Frank ruled late Thursday afternoon that architect EwingCole, not private developer Northwest 15th Street Associates, owns the plans under a contract between EwingCole and Northwest 15th Street Associates.

The project has been stymied because of Northwest's bankruptcy June 23 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The judge's order said a memorandum setting forth his reasons will be released Friday.

More than three hours were spent last week on two sentences of contractual language during a proceeding that portended the future of a project that would unite the Family Court's domestic relations and juvenile branches into modern, non-dilapidated facilities. When Northwest, the mortgagor of the air rights at what is now a parking lot owned underground by the Philadelphia Parking Authority and once a proposed developer of the family courthouse, filed for bankruptcy, the proceedings placed an automatic stay on legal and construction activity related to the proposed courthouse.

A hearing on Northwest's ownership rights to the real property in relation to the First Judicial District and the parking authority will be heard on Monday.

The original structure of the deal to build a family courthouse with $200 million in state capital funds at a site owned below ground by the parking authority and mortgaged aboveground by Northwest has unraveled in the wake of the revelation that attorney Jeffrey B. Rotwitt, who was retained by the court system to search for building locations and as a tenant representative, ended up on the other side of the project by striking a fee-sharing deal with developer Donald W. Pulver, who created Northwest to develop the 15th and Arch site.

To read more about the judge's memorandum and about the next stages of the Family Court project, read The Legal on Monday.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 26, 2010 (boomark / email).