Rebuilding Camden's school system may indirectly benefit Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff and his plans to turn the city's waterfront into a neighborhood.

If the school district moves into the vacant Wilson Building downtown, Dranoff plans to buy the current district headquarters, at Front and Cooper Streets, for a third large-scale residential conversion.

"It would complete the assembly of a residential neighborhood," said Dranoff, who last month dedicated his $60 million luxury-loft apartment complex in the former RCA Nipper Building, now called the Victory Building. "It would form the critical mass needed for services to come to this area."

Next summer, he plans to start rehabilitating "Son of Victor," a building at Front and Cooper Streets across from school district headquarters. Equity Bank is eyeing the first two floors.

Dranoff already refers to the eight-story school district building as "Grandson of Victor," and said it could hold 80 loft apartments, either for sale or rental.

His plans call for demolition of what he called the "rather unattractive and not historic" adjacent warehouse to make way for 20 owner-occupied brick rowhouses along Johnson Park. He said he saw the park as "Camden's equivalent of Rittenhouse Square."

Melvin R. "Randy" Primas Jr., Camden's chief operating officer, said he expected the plan to gain momentum.

The school district has occupied its 80,000-square-foot headquarters since 1993, and last year bought the building for $1.7 million from the city redevelopment agency.

"It has a great history," said Dwaine J. Williams, a former school board member. "It was built in 1927. It's the former RCA administration building. It's on the site of the former Cooper Ferry Hotel."

A move would benefit the school district because the headquarters needs renovations, which would be difficult if it were occupied, Williams said. School officials also consider the Wilson Building more centrally located.

Dranoff's success in acquiring the district building soon depends in part on a massive feasibility study of the "reuse adaptability" of the Wilson Building. If the building cannot be readapted, it will be torn down, and the district will move into a new building on that spot, Williams said.