Philadelphia’s Market Street East searches for growth and renewal — with or without a new Sixers arena
Now storefronts sit empty, pedestrians watch their backs at night, and the SEPTA trains that roar into Jefferson Station are missing thousands of riders who left during the pandemic and haven’t come back. One new study said the corridor needs lots of help, and another indicated that not much is on the way: In downtown Philadelphia, 66 big real estate projects are“I don’t need a study to tell me that Market Street East is in extremis,” said John Connors Sr., president of Brickstone Realty, as he ticked off a list of businesses that are closed or moving. “That’s what we’re dealing with on the ground.
“We need a big vision,” said Phil Goldsmith, a former city deputy mayor and managing director. “The issue should be Market Street East and what should be done for Market Street East. To say, ‘Let’s pop this arena in there,’ and not look at other solutions, doesn’t seem to be a strategic way of looking at things.”Market East has so many challenges that it’s hard to know where to start. Maybe with the one that nobody saw coming, the one that stalled what looked like an unstoppable revival.
At Jefferson Station, atop of which the Sixers plan to build, one of every four weekday commuters — who bought lunches, grabbed snacks, shopped, and stayed after work to meet friends at restaurants — has vanished.The impact of those missing people is punishing: in the Market East area, 23.9% of office space was vacant at the end of last year, higher than Philadelphia as a whole, according toAll of that has left Market East struggling for air. And uncertain from where the next breath will come.
Despite its walls, she said, Market East could be brought to human scale, made less institutional and more engaging by adding elements that attract people: courtyards, pocket parks, residences, new businesses. Rodriguez sees the option of mall or arena as“Maybe we can just take a beat,” she said. “‘What else could go there?’ As opposed to, ‘This mall is dying; let’s replace it with another playground.’”broke up a dense block and added stores, apartments, and a MOM’s organic market.
The arena would claim the western third of the Fashion District, covering the area from 10th to 11th and Market to Filbert Streets. Neighbors say they fear losing popular attractions like the AMC movie theater, Round 1 Bowling alley and arcade, City Winery music venue, and Wonderspaces art experience.
They have declined to share the calculations behind their tax figure. And they’ve made other bold claims, including the creation of 1,000 permanent jobs and $400 million in annual “economic output.” Meanwhile, the city-sponsored studies that are supposed to offer clarity to decision-makers are months overdue.
He joined Brickstone as its man in Philadelphia and took on the $90 million renovation. A few years later the property earned the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Honor Award as the nation’s best large-scale commercial rehabilitation. The future was supposed to be sunnier. In the early 1960s the city government projected that Philadelphia’s population would rise through 1980, reaching about 2.2 million. And that the majestic department stores that defined Market East were permanent, the challenge how to best move shoppers from building to building..
What, he asks, could be more experiential than a world-class arena? Or more inclusive than basketball and music? “Someplace that people have a reason to go to and want to go to,” said Alex Kafenbaum, senior vice president and head of development for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Sixers. “An experience on event- and nonevent-days and every day of the week.”
Directly across from the arena site, on the south side between 11th and 10th, stands what is probably the roughest block on Market East., designed by Victor Cruen, hailed as inventor of the shopping mall, is closed and hidden behind plywood. The former Rite Aid drug store is empty and locked.
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