Vacant lots: Not bought for $1 (and they’re costing Temple)

The Temple News, by obtaining copies of the deeds to the three vacant lots owned by Temple, has learned that the lots were not bought for $1, as stated in a previous Broad & Cecil post.

Contrary to what the Board of Revision of Taxes Web site states, 1434 W. Diamond Street was bought for $3,750. 1436 W. Diamond St. was bought for $850.
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1434, 1436 W. Diamond St. (Stephen Zook TTN)

Also, Temple is still paying taxes on all three properties, which is costing the university hundreds of dollars – only a drop in the bucket compared to the multi-million dollar operating budget Temple runs, but still noteworthy.

Why is Temple spending money on these properties when they sit vacant? How long will it continue to spend money on properties that could be sold?

The Park Avenue lot cost Temple $617 in the last five years. The two Diamond Street lots cost Temple a combined $653 in the last five years.

If property taxes stay the same for the next five years, the properties will cost Temple $1,380.
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1434, 1436 W. Diamond St. (Stephen Zook TTN)

1436 Diamond St. was, as TTN initially suspected, bought from the city. 1434 was bought from Gwendolyn C. Burke, who was the widow of George Burke, according to the deed. The property was bequeathed to the Burkes by an Adeline T. Read’s will.

The Park Avenue lot is the only one that was actually bought for $1, a symbolic amount used in deeds when a property is gifted. It was bought from Irving Blumberg and his wife, Anne, who lived in Montgomery County. They are not Temple graduates, according to the Office of Alumni Relations.

As stated in a previous post, Ray Betzner of university communications said he was unaware of the properties or any purpose for them.

This post can be found on broadandcecil.com.