Emails Show Developer Tried to Buy Vacant Lot From City Before “Trespassing”

Ori Feibush, the Point Breeze developer that dropped about $20,000 of his own cash to revitalize a vacant lot adjacent to his planned coffee shop at 20th and Federal, claimed to have inquired about purchasing the land from city before “trespassing” and sprucing up the lot on his own. A spokesman for Mayor Nutter, Mark McDonald, was quoted in Wednesday’s Daily News as saying that the city hadn’t heard from Feibush on the subject until they received a letter on Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, Naked Philly (owned by Feibush) published emails from 2011 detailing an attempt by Feibush to purchase the land from the city.