At a well-attended press conference Tuesday morning, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham sold a former South Philly drug house for a mere $1.
Sunrise of Philadelphia Inc., a nonprofit community group, will use the home as a living workshop to teach high-school students the building and construction trades.
Sunrise’s chief operating officer, Loretta V. Crea, handed Abraham a buck, and the district attorney turned over the deed to 427 McClellan St. The two shook hands and the deal was done.
Chief Inspector William Blackburn and Inspector Joe Sullivan of Philadelphia Police Narcotics Bureau were among those on hand, along with officials from the District Attorney’s Office and representatives for state Sen. Vincent Fumo and Councilman Frank DiCicco.
In a few months, students in an afterschool club called Home Repair and Construction will begin rehabbing the property.
Locally, the courses are offered after hours at Bok Vocational High School, which has been named a Beacon School.
Two 17-year-old Bok students, Ricky Pearson from Kensington and Ignis Inniss from North Philly, showed up at the press conference.
"I think it’s a great opportunity," said Inniss, who is looking forward to learning dry-walling and painting.
Pearson hopes to hone his plumbing and electrical skills.
"It gives us something to do and it will develop our skills," said Pearson.
The ball got rolling on the transfer when Crea wrote a letter to the District Attorney’s Office asking for a property.
"It’s absolutely wonderful. We have so many great programs that we do for kids. This is by far the most exciting," Crea said. "They can learn their theory in school and come here and get their hands-on in construction."
Terms of the agreement require Sunrise to begin renovations within six months and to refrain from selling or transferring the property for three years. Different groups of students will get a chance to rehab the place during that period, Crea said. At the end of the three years, Sunrise will sell the property. Crea said she would like to see 427 McClellan go to a first-time homebuyer.
An officer with Narcotics Field Unit South who asked not to be named said a drug investigation that began last September around the 1100 block of Rodman Street led police to 427 McClellan. The source said the home’s tenant, Robert Nicoletti, was later arrested as the Rodman Street dealer.
After police made a few undercover buys, neighbors got together and forced Nicoletti out of his Rodman Street home, the source said. Nicoletti then set up shop at 427 McClellan, police said. Neighbors filed numerous complaints about increasing drug activity at the home and Narcotics Field Unit South officers moved in and began investigating the property.
An undercover officer bought powder cocaine from 427 McClellan between Sept. 16 and 25, police said. On Sept. 25, officers executed a search and seizure warrant and arrested Nicoletti, 34.
Investigators confronted the suspect as he was trying to discard a plastic container holding a large amount of powder cocaine, said the District Attorney’s Office.
Recovered inside the home was 20 grams of powder cocaine with a street value of $3,300; a .22-caliber rifle loaded with one round in the chamber and four rounds in the magazine; cash and assorted drug paraphernalia, said authorities.
Nicoletti has been held for trial on all charges, the police source said.
Evidence obtained by police led a judge to order the property forfeited in March, said Joseph Whitehead Jr., deputy district attorney of the Narcotics Division.
Whitehead stressed that when fighting a neighborhood nuisance, it’s a mistake to think one person can’t make a change.
"We stand here now because someone took the time to make an anonymous phone call," he said. "Calls don’t go ignored, and this is evidence of that."
