December 11, 2024
Provided Image/Gensler
City Council has pushed back a key vote on the 76ers' proposal to build a new arena on East Market Street. Lawmakers are negotiating with the team about the project's community benefits agreement.
City Council again delayed a critical vote on legislation for the 76ers arena Wednesday evening, pushing a key decision on the controversial project back to Thursday morning. Council President Kenyatta Johnson said the vote, which is needed to advance the bills out of committee, will take place at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, before the council's regular meeting.
It was the second time Wednesday that the committee's vote was postponed. Earlier, a Wednesday morning meeting had been rescheduled as council members and the 76ers continued to negotiate the terms of the community benefits agreement.
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The afternoon vote had been set to take place during a committee meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. But negotiations with the team were ongoing, and an hour after the meeting was slated to begin Johnson emerged to announce it had been pushed to Thursday.
During the wait for Wednesday's afternoon session to start, a boisterous crowd of arena foes and supporters shouted competing chants inside City Council chambers for over an hour.
Council members spent Wednesday working with the team to tweak the terms of the arena's community benefits agreement, which has become a sticking point. By Wednesday, council members had circulated a series of proposed amendments to the CBA that would double it from $50 million to $100 million.
The committee approval of the legislation still would not green light the 76ers arena project. If the bills are voted out of committee on Thursday, the proposal could get a first read later in the day at City Council's regular session and then would be up for a final vote on Dec. 19, the governing body's last meeting of the year.
At least nine council members must approve the bills in order for development and construction on the arena to begin.
The 76ers have said they need the $1.3 billion project to be approved by the end of 2024 to open the venue by 2031, when their lease at the Wells Fargo Center ends. The proposal would replace a portion of the Fashion District mall on East Market Street between 10th and 11th streets, just south of Chinatown.
Opponents of the arena have been urging City Council to delay making a decision about the project until next year. The No Arena In Chinatown Coalition called the team's deadline arbitrary. They pushed for a $300 million CBA, arguing far more support is needed for Chinatown businesses that will be negatively impacted by the project.
In the version of the proposed CBA that was revised on Wednesday, the Chinatown Business Disruption Fund is increased from $1.6 million to $10 million. The proposal also would commit $5 million to a Chinatown Community Land Trust that will preserve long-term affordability for select properties overseen by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. Another $3 million would go toward efforts to subsidize public transit.
In its current form, the amended CBA would include more than $36 million in spending in the five years before the arena's construction is completed.
Opponents of the arena were not moved by the concessions the 76ers made. They chanted, "$50 mil, $100 mil – the whole thing is a sellout deal!"
After Johnson's announcement of another recess, the coalition celebrated outside council chambers. Spokesperson Melissa McCleery said the group had placed hundreds of calls to council members over the last few days as part of their campaign to halt the project from moving forward.
City Council held eight hearings on the proposal over the last month, receiving testimony from project stakeholders, supporters and opponents of the arena. In addition to debate about the CBA, the hearings focused heavily on the financial and operational demands the arena would place on SEPTA in the midst of a long-term funding crisis.
Supporters of the project, including Mayor Cherelle Parker, have touted it as a vital investment in East Market Street's slumping commercial corridor and a pipeline for jobs in Center City.
