And he’s paying for it with Promise Neighborhood grant money?

Okay, we made that last part up.

And the title of this post is pure speculation based on rumors.

<The lawyers say we can now continue>

Here’s what we know: Over the past couple of weeks, crews have torn down four and a half homes on the 800 block of S 15th St. According to public record, 814 S 15th St. is owned by Kenny Gamble, the chairman of Universal Companies and a musical genius, and his wife, Faatimah. Islam Abdur Rahim, Universal’s CEO, owns 818 S 15th St., and Mr. Gamble alone owns 822 S 15th St.

Recent past

Earlier this week, this was the scene:

Wow

Looking down Webster St.

Only part of one house is left

Universal was able to tear the homes down by right, and have not yet applied for zoning. If they’re simply replacing those homes with new single family homes, they can do so without going to ZBA, but that seems unlikely. If that were the plan, it would have made more sense to fix up the existing buildings than tear them down and build new ones, especially for rentals, which is usually Universal’s MO. Unless… <gasp> could they be building market rate homes?!

Guess we’ll have to keep tabs on this one and update y’all when we know more.

Here’s hoping it’s a quintuple-wide mansion.