PhillyDeals: Pa. funding program's projects unclear

Pennsylvania's General Assembly has voted to borrow $1.67 billion more to fund prisons, roads, railroads, bridges, and other public projects.

The deal includes $270 million for "redevelopment assistance" for private developers' projects, through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP).

The senators and reps voted without knowing exactly which projects the people's money will subsidize, since the projects are not listed in the bill.

"The Governor's Office decides" which of hundreds of previously approved but as yet unfunded projects will get this money, Greg Jordan, aide to bill sponsor Sen. Jacob Corman (R., Centre), told me.

State Rep. Rosita Youngblood (D., Phila.) was in the minority voting "no." She has challenged the current RACP program as a grab bag that awards money based on political influence, not project merit.

Gov. Corbett's office didn't immediately provide a list of his priority projects. But his state budget office has posted a list of more than 500 projects, all previously backed by Corbett's predecessor, Ed Rendell, and the legislature. Corbett already has agreed to "rerelease" RACP funding.

They won't all get funded any time soon, and certainly not under the new bill, which covers little more than one-quarter of the $1 billion in RACP grants Corbett endorses.

Earlier this year, I listed Philadelphia projects such as the American Revolution Center, the new Janney Montgomery Scott L.L.C. headquarters, the Wistar Institute expansion, and the new Barnes Museum that Corbett previously agreed to finance under the program.

Here are some more recent approvals:

$9 million for Ron Rubin's Gallery at Market East mall improvements, plus $7.5 million for SSH Real Estate's plans to develop the nearby proposed Pavilion at Market East on ground leased from the city-controlled, financially challenged Girard Estate.

Work on those two projects hasn't started, so it's a safe bet state money won't be flowing into them soon.

$9.25 million for the Franklin Institute.

$7 million for developer Robert Ambrosi's Franklin Place Hotel at 401 Race St.

$5 million to redevelop the Franklin Mint property near Media.

$5 million to the Norris Square Civic Association, which wants to redevelop the former St. Boniface parish site in its North Philly neighborhood, and $5 million to the nearby Taller Puertorriqueno cultural center.

$2.75 million for a privately owned supermarket in West Philly's Mantua section.