Another rehab center gets
mixed reactions in Frankford

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Frankford Associates Ltd., a group of investors that includes developer Jim McCarthy, recently added a tidy sum to its coffers with the sale of the Third Federal Bank Building, at 4625 Frankford Ave., to NorthEast Treatment Centers for $635,000.
Frankford Associates paid the Frankford Community Development Corporation $275,000 for the property in April.
That $360,000 gain will come in handy as the developers work to rehabilitate the old Art Holiday theater and convert the site to an arts center and possible home for FrankfordStyle, a non-profit community organization that taught drama, art, music and dance to children and promoted arts and culture in the neighborhood.
The development group has a signed agreement of sale for $250,000, but the deal offers a provision to walk away this month, should the theater project prove to be cost prohibitive.
NorthEast Treatment Centers is a 37-year-old organization that provides behavioral health care and social services for adults, children and their families in southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
NET services include foster care, residential treatment programs, and other clinical and placement service, as well as substance abuse services, juvenile treatment services, dual diagnosis treatment programs, and outpatient mental health programs.
According to NET president Terence McSherry, the bank will remain at the location. Other offices in the building will be used for a recovery support center, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, counseling, and the expansion of drug-free outpatient care. The building will also be a site for an Adolescent Violence Reduction Partnership (AVRP) program.
AVRP is a hands-on anti-violence program in which youth workers are assigned to high-risk youths between the ages 10 and 15 to protect them from becoming perpetrators or victims of violence.
McSherry expects it will be at least three to four months before NET will be operational on Frankford Avenue, as the building needs some sprucing up, a new HVAC system and accessibility for the handicapped.
NET also operates a facility on Bridge Street in Frankford. According to McSherry, the Bridge Street facility’s third floor has operated as a residential treatment program for men since about 1978. The rehab program runs from 45 to 60 days.
The second floor of the building offers pharmacotherapy, including methadone maintenance and other prescription drugs. The facility’s first floor is a shared drug-free intensive program.
East Frankford Civic Association president Peggy Hoch was upset that the association wasn’t notified about NET’s plans.
"I’m not against people getting better, but they have to learn that they’re in a community. If they’re going to a meeting, going to work, they have to learn not to use abusive language," Hoch said.
The civic leader is concerned that another rehab facility in the neighborhood is not going to entice business to come to Frankford.
Hoch hopes to have an NET representative at a future civic meeting to answer questions from the community. ••
For more information about NorthEast Treatment Centers, check out www.net-centers.org
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com