Lincoln Technical Institute
could be moving to Somerton

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Does an auto-repair school belong in a corporate office park?
That’s the question Somerton residents are contemplating after last week’s announcement by a commercial development company that it plans to build a new Lincoln Technical Institute facility on the Byberry tract.
Speaking at the monthly general meeting of the Somerton Civic Association on Dec. 11, officials with Brandywine Realty Trust and Lincoln Tech said that auto repair would be among several curricula offered by the school at its new Byberry campus. The building would be the first erected by Brandywine on a vacant 50-acre portion of the tract.
But several neighbors didn’t like the idea of an auto-repair shop of any kind in their back yards.
"We’ve been told for years that it’s going to be an office complex, so this is a little disappointing," one male resident said.
"To me, this sounds like it should be going into an industrial park, not a nice office complex," agreed Dolores Barbieri, vice president of the civic group.
The Byberry tract, at Roosevelt Boulevard and Southampton Road, is the former site of the Philadelphia State Hospital, a psychiatric facility closed by the state in 1990 after years of alleged patient neglect and abuse.
Radnor-based Brandywine holds the rights to develop 50 acres of the site under a September 2004 agreement with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, which owns the land.
When PIDC — a quasi-public agency that facilitates commercial development in the city — and Brandywine initially pitched their plan to neighbors, they spoke of their desire to build a corporate office complex with white-collar jobs and mostly daytime activity.
The Lincoln Tech facility wouldn’t fit that mold, but it still would be in keeping with the agreement, according to Jim Cuorato, Brandywine’s vice president for development and a former Philadelphia commerce director.
"This is not an office building you’re going to hear about," Cuorato said before introducing Lincoln Tech officials to Somerton Civic Association members. "But it is permitted by the agreement with PIDC. It is an institutional/education use."
Lincoln Tech would need a zoning variance from the city to operate at Byberry. The site is now zoned L-2 (light industrial). Brandywine and the school are seeking the civic association’s support for a variance. The group tabled a vote on the issue until its January general meeting.
Cuorato did not discuss what interest, if any, Brandywine has received from other potential tenants of Byberry. But he did say that time is crucial to progress on the development. Under terms of the PIDC agreement, Brandywine has five years to finish the job.
"We need tenants or prospective users to start building," Cuorato said.
Like some neighbors, City Councilman Brian O’Neill isn’t sold on the idea of auto repair activity at Byberry. The site’s current zoning resulted from a Council bill introduced by O’Neill in 2004 with the support of neighbors, PIDC and Brandywine. He can’t see granting the developer a variance for the very first building to go up there.
That would set a bad precedent for future uses of the site and potentially deter true corporate office development.
"You’ve got to think what the high-profile (corporation) is going to want to move in next to," O’Neill said. "You’re going to be sitting on variance (requests) for everyone because that’s all they’re going to get (as tenants)."
Lincoln may fit the definition of an educational institution under the agreement between PIDC and Brandywine, but neighbors, Council and the zoning board are not bound by the same agreement, O’Neill added.
Under the plan shown to neighbors last week, Lincoln Tech would occupy one custom-designed building at the northern-most part of the site, closest to Poquessing Creek. As yet unnamed tenants will occupy three additional buildings, according to Brandywine’s conceptual plan.
"The first building is now in design," Cuorato said.
Lincoln Tech would move all activities from its two Northeast Philadelphia campuses to Byberry, said Mark Serinsky, executive director of the local schools. Lincoln has operated for more than four decades at Torresdale and Linden avenues. Six years ago, it opened another school in an industrial park on Hornig Road, just off Roosevelt Boulevard.
In addition to automotive mechanical repair, the new facility would offer courses in nursing and health care, business information technology, criminal justice and HVAC, said Shaun McAlmont, president of Lincoln Technical Institute, which is based in West Orange, N.J., and has 34 technical schools in 17 states.
McAlmont assured neighbors that Lincoln runs a clean facility with a "professional atmosphere." Students wear uniforms. All are high school graduates. The average age is the mid-20s.
Classes run in three four- to six-hour shifts, essentially at morning, afternoon and night. At any given time, there may be up to 800 students on campus, McAlmont said.
McAlmont described the automotive shop as a "lab" that would be contained entirely inside the building. No commercial repair would take place on the site, though students would be permitted to work on their own cars at the shop.
Cuorato noted that all vehicle traffic would enter and exit the site via two Roosevelt Boulevard entrances. There would be no direct access to Southampton Road.
Another male neighbor claimed that students at Lincoln’s Torresdale campus routinely cause problems entering and exiting that facility. Students speed on local streets and disobey traffic signs, the man said.
"I go by there twice a day," he added.
Serinsky denied that the Torresdale Avenue site has been a routine problem for that neighborhood.
"We monitor (students) very closely," he said. "We have guards. It’s not been a problem. We’ve had occasional conversations with some of the neighbors."
Once Brandywine fulfills its development obligation, it intends to buy the site from PIDC and continue to lease it to Lincoln Tech and other tenants, Cuorato said.
Mary Jane Hazell, the Somerton Civic Association president, spoke in support of the Lincoln proposal, cautioning neighbors to be wary of other potential uses for the site.
"Something is going to go there," Hazell said. "In my opinion, I can live with this."
In a separate zoning issue, SCA zoning chairman Dominic Ragucci reported that the civic group plans to discuss a proposed mobile-phone communications facility on the 1200 block of Southampton Road at its January meeting.
T-Mobile wants to install a series of new antennas on an existing pole, as well as an accessory service cabinet across the street from the Somerton Youth Organization and the Walker Lodge. The cabinet would house motorized equipment and be enclosed by an 8-foot fence, Ragucci said.
Also, the civic group voted overwhelmingly in support of a group of merchants who want to legalize their existing strip mall at Red Lion Road and Sandmeyer Lane.
According to zoning attorney Harry Citrino, the strip mall has been in operation for about 40 years. The store owners recently discovered that the property was never zoned for commercial use. There are 10 individual properties in the shopping center. All are now zoned industrial. ••
The next Somerton Civic Association meeting will be on Jan. 8 at 7:15 p.m. at Walker Lodge 306, 1290 Southampton Road.