March 6: SEPTA says don’t panic | L&I can’t search building collapse data | Partners buy 401 N. Broad | New Penn Treaty playground | Mantua, Germantown civic groups expand efforts

Good morning Eyes on the Street! Here is a little news to start your Thursday. 

SEPTA doesn’t want riders to panic about talk of union workers striking if contract negotiations do not end favorably. SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said the transit agency and Transit Workers Union Local 234 are still actively negotiating. 

L&I says it cannot determine how many buildings have collapsed in recent years because the descriptions of incidents to which staff have responded are buried in an unsearchable database.  Five weeks after the Daily News filed a Right-to-Know request asking for a list of buildings that have collapsed in the last five years, L&I responded that the records do not exist. 

Three partners have stepped up to buy 401 N. Broad Street, one of the most important telecom hotels (or data centers) along the East Coast. Amerimar Enterprises Inc. of Philadelphia, Abrams Capital Management of Boston and Hunter Newby, a communications network and real estate investor from New York, will go in on the deal to purchase and operate the 11-story, 1.3-million-square-foot building. 

Friends of Penn Treaty Park, the Department of Public Property and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation have unveiled two potential plans for a new playground at Penn Treaty Park. The playground equipment will be replaced and relocated to a higher elevation in the park. Both plans include tot and junior play sections, a swing set, stepping stones and a turtle structure. 

The People’s Emergency Center in West Philadelphia and Germantown United CDC are expanding their neighborhood support. PEC’s new Financial Opportunity Center has served more than 127 residents in the first month and a half it has been open. Germantown United CDC hired its first staff member and appointed a new board president, Garlen Capita, an associate with Wallace, Roberts & Todd. 

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