Politics & Government

Willows Mansion, Cottage Up for Grabs

Radnor Township is seeking proposals from businesses and nonprofits for the buildings and some grounds.

 

“The sky is the limit.”

That’s what the Radnor Township administration is saying the future could hold for the mansion and cottage at .

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Anything is possible, including demolition or sale.

Township manager Bob Zienkowski has said that the township does not want to — or perhaps should not — be a landlord to an event space. The mansion has run in the red for at least the past five years.

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So in a bit of an unusual move,

But here’s the rub: you can bring the idea, but you also need to bring the funding.

“We want it to be able to come to fruition,” Public Works director Steve Norcini told a group of people at a meeting about the Request for Proposals on July 25.

(Find a copy of the RFP in the pdf section of this article.)

Zienkowski said the township is looking for a partner to do something similar to what has done with . The township retains ownership, but the private girls school has built and maintains a turf field there.

“We want to see what opportunities sit out there,” he said. The Willows is “a diamond in the rough with tremendous potential, and we want to take it to the next level.”

What do you think should go in the Willows mansion and cottage? Tell us in the comments below.

Before the meeting let out, someone asked what perhaps is the most important question.

Everyone who makes a proposal will be expending time and funds. “What is possibility if you have the best proposal that it is ever going to come to reality,” asked Cas Holloway, a local developer.

“What are the chances that it would actually be approved?”

The odds might be pretty good. Come September 1, 2013 “this building will be shuttered,” Zienkowski said of the mansion.


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