From the Philadelphia Art Alliance Wikipedia Page
The Art Alliance Building, an historic anchor to Rittenhouse Square that was owned by the now defunct University of the Arts, was acquired in a live auction by the Curtis Institute of Music on Tuesday for a bid of $7.6 million.
Curtis outbid Temple University for the building after former City Councilman and mayoral candidate Allan Domb dropped out following a publicized - and seemingly controversial - $6.5 million bid last week.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office filed an objection to Domb's bid on Monday, indicating that the building had a covenant placed on it when the Alliance merged with UArts in 2017.
That covenant outlined that the building would be used for educational or cultural pursuits or to house a non-profit entity.
"The interesting thing is the attorney general never asked me what I intended to do with the building if I had purchased it," Domb told Philly Daily.
So, we asked.
"I hadn't decided on every aspect of it, but I think it's a gem of building and I wanted to clean it up and preserve it, however I was committed to using part of it to house a non-profit entity."
Domb didn't say which non-profit, but said he was aware of the covenant when he made his initial bid last week.
After all, you don't bid $6.5 million on a property and not know the fine print, right?
"Exactly," Domb said. "But once I saw that both Curtis and Temple were passionate about acquiring the building, I knew both would do a great job with it, so I dropped out of the bidding."
Curtis, which is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this year and is considered one of the top music conservatories in the world, has not specified how it plans to use the space just yet - as renovations are expected first.
Trustees and supporters have been flooding Curtis with gifts, especially in recent days, in the hopes of winning the bid for the alliance.
Whether there were enough donations to cover the full $7.6 million bid is unclear.
The auction was conducted Tuesday by UArts bankruptcy trustee Alfred T. Giuliano. Another UArts building - the Bank building - was also sold during the auction. There are six other UArts buildings still for sale, but none of them were bid on at the Tuesday hearing.
Temple is still hopeful to land the biggest UArts building - Terra Hall - with the intention to convert it into a Center City satellite campus.
But now, all the unnecessary drama surrounding the Art Alliance is officially over.
"I'm happy that Curtis got it," Domb said. "They'll do a fantastic job with it. It's a win for the city of Philadelphia. It's the perfect ending."
