40,000 parcels.

That’s how many pieces of vacant/absent real estate Philadelphia currently has. 25% of them are owned by the city, with the remaining 75% owned privately. That’s a mind-blowing number, but once you stop and think about all of the vacant residential, commercial, and industrial pieces combined, I can believe it. Philly’s a big city.

The Nutter Administration’s current land bank proposal is only supposed to deal with the land the City of Philadelphia currently owns (which is 25%), but it’s still a huge step in the right direction. That’s 10,000 parcels that could be sold and either redeveloped or repurposed sooner rather than later.

Since it is costing upwards of $20M per year for the city to maintain these parcels, it only makes sense to start unloading them, making money on the sale, and saving money on maintenance.