By CATHERINE LUCEY
A local philanthropist has waded into the controversy surrounding the city's proposed settlement deal with the regional Boy Scouts, making a $1.5 million offer to buy the Scouts' headquarters.
Real-estate investor Mel Heifetz is offering more than the city would get from the Scouts. Under the city's settlement deal - which follows a legal dispute based on the national organization's ban on gay Boy Scouts - the Scouts would pay $500,000 for the Logan Square building and then drop a claim for up to $960,000 in legal fees.
Heifetz, who sent the offer to Mayor Nutter and the public property commissioner yesterday, said that if he successfully bought the 13,000-square-foot building at 22nd and Winter streets, he would donate it to a charitable organization that does not discriminate.
"I thought maybe we can right a wrong. It would be very nice if the building were in the hands of some gay group," said Heifetz, who several years ago paid off the mortgage for the William Way Community Center, which serves the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
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