Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said the city will "start from scratch" developing a master plan to revitalize East Market Street after the 76ers abruptly dropped their $1.3 billion arena project that would have replaced the struggling Fashion District Mall.
The 76ers are instead partnering with Comcast Spectacor to build a new arena at the sports complex in South Philadelphia by 2031 and spearhead a separate investment in redeveloping East Market Street.
MORE: 76ers, Comcast Spectacor plan to open new South Philly arena by 2031
Parker was a staunch supporter of the 76ers' contentious plans to build an arena in Center City and had made transforming East Market Street a major plank of her first year in office. At a news conference Monday with city officials and business leaders involved in the shifting arena plans, Parker acknowledged she was caught off guard by the sudden change in direction.
"This is a curveball that none of us saw coming," Parker said. "But nevertheless, we are here. ... I don't have the luxury of wallowing in this 180. This is a celebration for the city."
As Parker and others recast the future of the sports complex in South Philadelphia, few details were shared about what could be in store for the slumping commercial corridor on East Market Street. The city learned last week that Macy's will soon close its three-story department store at the historic Wanamaker building, delivering another blow to an area where a growing number of retailers have left behind empty storefronts.
"For those of you who are lifelong (Philadelphians) like me, you remember Wanamaker's. You remember Strawbridges. You may remember Lit Brothers. You may remember Gimbels. You may remember JCPenney," Parker said of East Market Street. "And if you're like me, it was a big deal to go eat a hot dog at Woolworths and sit at the counter. We are long past those moments. That was another time. Here we have an opportunity to build, in another era, an East Market Street that none of us could have imagined."
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the owner of the 76ers, and Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers, said the companies will work with city leaders and local stakeholders to "develop a variety of options" to revitalize Center City. No specific proposals have been made and the companies did not provide financial details about their plans.
Parker said the city previously had not set aside funding until 2032 to create a master plan on East Market Street, hoping instead that the 76ers arena would kickstart that process and serve as its foundation. The deal between the 76ers and Comcast Spectacor will now "accelerate" the city's timeline, she said.
How lessons from the past will affect future plans
Parker said the city's negotiations on the arena will provide a framework for goals to spur economic opportunity and stimulate job growth, particularly for the building trades unions that served as major backers of her mayoral campaign.
"We talked about a revival of Market Street that would occur from City Hall down to the river and nothing about that commitment has changed, except we will now fast-track the master planning and begin that process immediately," Parker said. "... While we have to go back to the drawing board, the great thing now is that no one has to guess. No one should act like they don't understand what the priorities are."
City Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose 1st District covers the scrapped arena site in Center City, said he was "pleased" to learn that the new plans include targeted funding for projects on East Market Street.
"We need private partners to share our vision for a new and improved Market East," Squilla said.
Critics of the Center City arena plan rejoiced at the collapse of the deal that would have put an arena on the boundary of Chinatown, disrupting the neighborhood's businesses with traffic and construction and potentially displacing residents in the years ahead.
The No Arena Coalition sharply criticized the city's process that led up to December's passage of legislation enabling the Center City arena, only for that plan to evaporate during private negotiations between the 76ers and Comcast Spectacor over the last two weeks.
“This sham of a process laid bare what Philadelphians have long known: Decisions about the future of neighborhoods are not being made by the people of those communities nor with their best interest in mind, but by a select few who represent their own benefits and bank accounts and a City Hall that’s bought and paid for," the activist group said.
City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, whose 2nd District covers the sports complex in South Philly, argued that the unexpected change of plans will be in the best interest of the city.
"Because we have a partnership that's still focused on revitalizing Market Street East, this is a process of addition and not subtraction," Johnson said. "Now we have two economic development projects. ... Plan B is better than Plan A."
'We don't have a proposal in front of us'
While advocating for the Center City arena in the fall, the Parker administration outlined plans for multiple other residential and retail projects along Market Street. One had called for 380 housing units and retail space at two lots on the 1000 block of Market Street. Another aimed to construct 340 units and retail at another lot on the 900 block of Market Street. Parker also touted a potential hotel at 8th and Market streets, a parking lot that's sometimes called the "Disney Hole" because it had once been slated for an indoor theme park that never came to fruition.
How those ideas will take shape — and how soon — is uncertain.
"We have to get a proposal," Parker said. "We don't have a proposal in front of us right now."
76ers spokesperson Molly McEndy confirmed Monday that the team had already completed the purchase of the Fashion District Philadelphia site on Market Street between 10th and 11th streets. She said the mall site is poised to be a part of redevelopment, but declined to comment on whether any other lots on Market Street have been acquired by the team or Comcast Spectacor.
Parker said her administration plans to be "very methodical" about moving forward with large-scale development projects both in South Philly and on East Market Street. She said the experience of negotiating the Center City arena deal established benchmarks for equitable development that she intends to bring to the table for both projects.
"Nothing that we did is going to be in vain," Parker said.
Ryan Boyer, business manager for the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, said he will not back off demands for strong minority participation in future projects in South Philadelphia and on East Market Street.
"I'm confident that if the Philadelphia Building Trades build anything, that those benchmarks will be there — and they'll be met or exceeded," he said.
The deal between the 76ers and Comcast Spectacor came after more than two years of feuding between the two companies over the Center City proposal.
"The journey to the best solution doesn't always go in a straight line," 76ers co-owner Josh Harris said at Monday's news conference.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said improving East Market Street will be an important objective for the city. He said it could not have been left behind in securing a deal to keep the 76ers in South Philly, where Comcast and the Phillies already had formed a partnership on a $2.5 billion long-term plan to build new amenities at the sports complex. Comcast's two skyscrapers in Center City are about 10 blocks from the area on East Market that will be the focus of redevelopment efforts there.
"The neighborhood needs a vibrancy," Roberts said. "And the Sixers have been right about that."