Final Hahnemann property gets a $5.5 million bid from HOW Group
The developer hopes to eventually use Martinelli Park, at 300-304 N. Broad St., for multifamily housing.
A Philadelphia-based developer, the HOW Group, has made a $5.5 million preliminary “stalking horse” bid for a former Hahnemann University Hospital property.
The hospital went bankrupt and closed six years ago. HOW’s bid covers one of Hahnemann’s final vacant properties: Martinelli Park at 300-304 N. Broad St.
The property has the most flexible zoning designation in Philadelphia, which allows for dense and tall development.
“It’s a site that we’d be happy to own and in the future develop,” said Gary Jonas, CEO of the HOW Group. “Multifamily residential is what our plan would be, once those economics come back in line which they’re not right now.”
Jonas said it could be a couple of years until market conditions improve to the point that construction would make sense. Interest rates remain high, President Donald Trump’s tariffs are expected to spike construction costs, and an apartment glut still affects parts of Philadelphia.
“We think it’s a good piece of land to own and get entitled. When the timing’s right, we’ll build on it,” Jonas said. “We like the location, we like the zoning, and we like the prices.”
HOW’s bid, disclosed in a Hahnemann bankruptcy filing Monday, sets an auction date for Sept. 24. Additional bids are due by Sept. 19. The sellers are including the underground parking at the adjoining Stiles Alumni Hall if another bidder wants to purchase it, but it is not part of HOW’s bid.
This week is also the date for the bankruptcy auction of another large batch of former Hahnemann properties. In May, Dwight City Group bid $16.25 million for a collection of hospital properties including two empty patient towers at Broad and Race Streets. That auction is set to take place July 16.
The HOW and Dwight bids represent the first major movement on Hahnemann’s former properties in years.
In 2021, Iron Stone Real Estate Partners bought the New College Building, now used by Drexel University, and the former Bobst Building, which is used as a life sciences laboratory. Stiles Hall had been owned by Drexel but recently was purchased by Radnor-based real estate company EQT.
Staff writer Harold Brubaker contributed to this article.