November 16–23, 2000

city beat

Alarming Developments

Working without permits, contractors set off a fire in a Philadelphia Management Corp. property.

by Ralph Cipriano

A demolition crew using acetylene torches at night to clandestinely remove pipes from a vacant Center City building owned by Philadelphia Management Corp. accidentally set off a one-alarm fire last week, prompting city officials to shut down the building.

"There was work being done in the building without permits," said Dominic Verdi, deputy commissioner of the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Workers were removing old sprinklers when they ignited sparks that caused a smoky fire on the top floor of the five-story building at 1222-26 Arch. Contractors evacuated the building, and there were no reported injuries.

Verdi said the demolition work was illegal. "Whoever was doing it was trying to hide it," he said. "You don’t burn pipes in the middle of the night. Our understanding is the contractors did work for Mr. Caplan."

Ronald Caplan, president of Philadelphia Management, did not return City Paper phone calls. The firm figures prominently in an ongoing city investigation. The inspector general is investigating decisions by top L&I officials to dismiss 100 fire code violations at 15 properties owned or managed by Philadelphia Management.

Caplan, a regular Democratic Party contributor, is also a friend of L&I Commissioner Edward J. McLaughlin. McLaughlin has told at least 50 L&I employees at a meeting in September that he previously rented an apartment from Caplan, and that he also asked the developer to give his son a job, which he did.

Philadelphia Management has been caught previously by L&I officials for doing work without permits, said Verdi, who declined to elaborate. The firm also has moved hundreds of tenants into six Center City high rises in the past two years without obtaining necessary certificates of occupancy that verify the buildings are up to code, fire department officials have said.

The city evicted a dozen tenants last month from a Philadelphia Management high rise at 315 Arch because it was unsafe, and did not have a certificate of occupancy. Tenants at another Philadelphia Management property at 1300 Chestnut said they moved into a ten-story high rise while it was under construction up to eight weeks before the firm received a certificate of occupancy from the city.

The firm also does not have a rental license for 1300 Chestnut, City Paper has learned. The license costs landlords $25 annually per rental unit. Landlords normally are required to have the license before they can move tenants in and collect rent.

Andrea White, a spokesperson for L&I, said the agency would issue a violation to Philadelphia Management for not having the license. She said that Philadelphia Management holds other rental licenses for other properties in the city, and that the firm "knows that it needs to obtain a rental license."

Regarding the fire at 12th and Arch, neighbors reported that a demolition crew had been working inside the five-story building at night for weeks, according to a fire department source. The building is about 75 feet by 150 feet in size, and was built in 1881 as a manufacturing center.

The fire was caused by droppings from a welder’s torch, fire officials said. It began in the southeast corner of the fifth floor, and burned through two lower floors. Contractors evacuated the building. The fire was phoned in at 6:26 a.m. and was reported under control at 7:11 a.m.

Firefighters found cut sprinkler pipes lying around and canisters of flammable gas. "It appeared they were in the process of removing the sprinkler system," the fire department source said.

"This kind of an incident in a Caplan property is what we worry about and what we fear," the source said. "Until Mr. Caplan is made to follow the city rules, our firefighters and residents will continue to be at risk."

Verdi said that L&I posted a cease operations order because of a lack of city permits. The contractor needed a permit to take out the sprinkler system. Also, workers should have maintained a fire watch where security guards are posted, Verdi said.

The building was shut down because of unsafe conditions involving a front wall, Verdi said. L&I officials were unaware that contractors had been working in the building. "If nobody calls us to say hey, there’s somebody working in the building at night, we don’t know about it," Verdi said.

Editor’s note: Former L&I commissioner Bennett Levin was scheduled to testify before City Council Wednesday morning, Nov. 15, to talk about L&I’s management. Read about it online today at www.citypaper.net where an earlier version of "Alarming Developments" was published.