DCCC paid $3M for ex-Prendie site in Upper Darby
The Drexel Hill property that includes the former Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School building fetched $3 million in a sale between the Delaware County Community College and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
College President Dr. L. Joy Gates Black disclosed the price of the sale during a press conference Tuesday morning at the Marple campus following a Friday announcement that the college and archdiocese had signed an agreement of sale for the 8.5-acre property, which includes the 100-year-old Prendie building. Archdiocesan spokesman Ken Gavin passed the opportunity to the college Friday to reveal the sale price (the college did not respond when reached for comment).
The college plans to turn the property into a full-service campus at a total estimated cost of $55 million.
“The purchase of the property is an important first step in the multi-step process that will result in the college creating a new, full-service, comprehensive community-centered campus,” said Black Tuesday morning.
Delaware County Community College will demolish a number of smaller buildings on the Prendie property to accommodate parking and build a new academic wing on the 180,000-square-foot former Prendie school building. Thirty classrooms for general academics, science labs and early childhood and career technical education will be part of the new campus. Black said the campus will include programs for science for the health professions, health studies (prenursing), early childhood education, culinary arts, electro-mechanical technologies, nurses aides, “and other degrees and certificates that lead directly into the workforce.”
The college expects a partnership with the YMCA of Eastern Delaware County to create an Early Childhood Education Learning Center. The campus will include a “community empowerment center” to connect people with county resources and community education and programs.
The historic, iconic front façade of the school that looks out over Garrett Road will not change.
Entrances to the building will be placed in the front and back of the campus building.
For the first time since February, the college confirmed that the opening of this Upper Darby Campus will mean consolidation of the college’s Upper Darby and Southeast centers into the new space.
No construction is planned for the now merged Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School property located on the same swatch of 30-acre land that the DCCC will rise on. Students will continue to attend the merged archdiocesan high school.
Black detailed the next steps of this major capital improvement project for the college, saying community input meetings will occur through the spring with the hope of incorporating said feedback into the plan designs. With that, further architectural and engineering analysis, application to Upper Darby Township for zoning, and submission for an application of funding to the Pennsylvania Department of Education is expected (the college hopes to get half of the costs reimbursed by the state, which they are expected to hear about next summer).
“Once funding is approved, we anticipate the construction and renovation of the property to take possibly 18 months,” said Black. Without hitches, construction and renovation should start in mid-2020 with a tentative opening by spring 2022.
DCCC serves 23,000 credit and non-credit students throughout Delaware and Chester counties. Sixty percent of students go on to four-year programs at other higher education institutions.