Bart Blatstein Sells Control of Piazza, Explains Tax Failure

With his Piazza at Schmidt’s development, developer Bart Blatstein helped set off a wave of gentrification that has remade Northern Liberties and its surrounding neighborhoods. But as he eyes bigger fish—namely, development of a casino on North Broad Street—Blatstein seems ready to divest himself of old responsibilities. To wit: He has sold 60 percent of his Piazza holdings to a New York group headed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

The deal comes the same week it was revealed Blatstein had failed to pay taxes on one of his many properties. In today’s Daily News, the developer wrote about how that happened.

Of all this development activity that has reshaped the face of Philadelphia and generated thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for the city, the taxes due on one property – one – eluded our controller. Immediately upon becoming aware of this tax issue, we rectified the oversight in full, despite the fact that we were entitled to – but did not initially receive – an abatement on the property.

We are proud to be from Philadelphia – for Philadelphia – and this one insignificant issue will not deter us from continuing the urban transformational development for which we are known, in the city we love.

He loves it. But he doesn’t own quite as much of it as he used to.