{"id":21377,"date":"2022-07-21T15:58:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T15:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sixers-new-arena-proposal-at-10th-and-market-would-demolish-part-of-fashion-district\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T15:58:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T15:58:59","slug":"sixers-new-arena-proposal-at-10th-and-market-would-demolish-part-of-fashion-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/sixers-new-arena-proposal-at-10th-and-market-would-demolish-part-of-fashion-district\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixers new arena proposal at 10th and Market would demolish part of Fashion District"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The managing partners of the 76ers are teaming up with Philadelphia apartment developer David J. Adelman and others in a proposal to build a new NBA arena at 10th and Market Streets, which they say will create investment and employment opportunities in a city that needs them.<\/p>\n

The Sixers’ Josh Harris and David Blitzer want to demolish a block of the Fashion District Philadelphia (the former Gallery) shopping center and, like other National Basketball Association teams, build atop a key public-transit hub. The block is home to SEPTA’s Jefferson Station and a Market-Frankford subway stop, as well as a short walk from the PATCO trains to South Jersey. It connects to parking garages a short drive from I-95, the Vine Street Expressway, and the Ben Franklin Bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to have our own Madison Square Garden,\u201d but newer, with a \u201cworld-class team in a new shiny arena,\u201d Adelman told The Inquirer before Thursday’s planned announcement.<\/p>\n

The $1.3 billion project would take up to nine years to plan and construct. It would be ready by the time the Sixers’ lease expires at the Wells Fargo Center in 2031.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is huge,\u201d said Paul Levy, president of the Center City District. It would be \u201cone of the most transit-accessible arenas in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The details will fall to a team headed by Adelman, whom Harris and Blitzer have chosen to chair the project’s development company, 76Devcorp. Their own company’s top real estate lieutenant, Jonathan Fascitelli, serves as chief executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cArenas are evolving to be downtown, in the urban core,\u201d Fascitelli said. \u201cThey bring people together, which can spur a meaningful economic revitalization and improve the quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group already has brought in stadium designer Gensler of San Francisco, stadium builder AECOM Hunt of Dallas, Langan Engineering of North Jersey, and Philadelphia developer Mosaic.<\/p>\n

The new arena would seat 18,500, below the 20,478 capacity at the Sixers’ current home in South Philly, which the team shares with the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve had a terrific partnership with the Sixers for decades and look forward to hosting the team in this world-class facility until at least 2031,\u201d Comcast Spectacor said in a statement issue Thursday. \u201cWe’ve invested hundreds of millions alongside the city, Phillies, and Eagles to make the South Philadelphia Stadium District an incredible destination for sports, entertainment and our passionate fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Everything we know about the Sixers’ plans for a new Center City arena<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Macerich, the California real estate company that operates the ailing mall, has endorsed the Market Street proposal as \u201ca natural evolution\u201d of the property, chief executive Thomas O’Hern said in a statement. The Fashion District opened in 2019 after more than $300 million in renovations of the former Gallery but has lost business with the COVID-19 shutdowns of the last two years.<\/p>\n

Adelman said the project would seek no city dollars, in contrast with many US pro sports facilities over the last 50 years, though a 30-year agreement that reduced property taxes for the site will remain in place through 2035.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has the potential to be extremely exciting. It could be a huge win for the city and the region\u201d if the developers make good on projected community benefit and hiring guarantees, said State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia).<\/p>\n

The project is so big that \u201cit is highly likely that there will need to be some type of order or package of orders,\u201d said Anne Fadullon, the city planning director. Most important, she said, developers must \u201censure the project works for the surrounding communities affected by this new arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up watching Dr. J and Allen Iverson, from seats a lot higher up,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cIt’s really exciting to build something good for the city. I just turned 50; we’ll play our first game there when I’m 60. So this is for our kids, and grandkids.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan focuses on the block between 10th and 11th, and Market and Filbert Streets. Macerich also owns properties on the south side of Market Street, and, in partnership with Philadelphia-based PREIT, the store block east of 10th. Across Filbert sits the city’s Greyhound bus terminal; to the east is the Jefferson (formerly Aramark) office tower.<\/p>\n

Those and other nearby properties could be expected to gain value from the arena, Adelman said, and some could become part of an expanded proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is private dollars coming into a tough city that’s got its problems, and making a bet on the city and on the people,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

He noted that the developers have committed to meeting with, supporting and satisfying neighborhood groups in the nearby Chinatown and Washington Square neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have got to make that right,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n

Asked about traffic and potential neighborhood concerns, Adelman said the owners have committed to spending millions through a \u201cpublic benefits agreement\u201d to help the area. They have also promised hiring agreements to ensure that women, Black and other underrepresented contractors make up a large part of the workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born and raised in Chinatown, and this is exciting,\u201d said John Chin, executive director of the 56-year-old Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp., which has developed affordable housing for the neighborhood. But residents would likely be \u201ccautious\u201d about embracing the concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know these projects have gentrifying effects on any neighborhood, and we need to be protected,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not allow any project to harm the preservation of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Many from Chinatown protest 2d Philly casino<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Inside, the new arena would offer better game-viewing \u201csight lines\u201d for spectators and enhanced digital services, said Tad Brown, head of the team owners’ management company, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.<\/p>\n

Brown said he knew when he ended his 20-year career with the Houston Rockets to come to Philadelphia last year that he would likely be helping prep a new Sixers arena \u2014 and that Harris and Blitzer were willing to spend for a championship team in a new facility.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia sports teams and some city leaders have long sought a downtown sports venue. The Sixers were outbid for development rights at Penn’s Landing in 2020. A late-1990s Phillies proposal to move to the neighborhood east of Broad and Spring Garden failed to win political support in the face of objections from Chinatown-area housing and business groups that feared they would be displaced.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Rebuffed from Penn’s Landing plan, Sixers may begin hunt for new home elsewhere in Philly<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

The NBA considers the latest plan \u201ca tremendous showcase for the city and the team\u201d and said the Sixers’ owners \u201cwill use this development to help revitalize Center City and the surrounding community,\u201d as NBA arenas have in other cities, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the luxury of a really long time before this is on the ground, and we are having a lot of conversations with workers, contractors and businesses knowing that we are generating a lot of economic opportunity for diverse Philadelphians,\u201d said David Gould, chief diversity officer for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and a former city official.<\/p>\n

Ryan Boyer, the Laborers’ union leader who heads the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, said the project could \u201cgalvanize the construction industry in Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyer predicted that this project would succeed where other proposals had fallen short \u201cbecause now you have David Adelman, who understands the Philadelphia group ecosystem\u201d and how to work with the interested parties whose support makes projects happen.<\/p>\n

The Carpenters, Electrical Workers, Sheet Metal Workers and other unions have already begun reaching out to city high schools to help recruit a \u201cdiverse and inclusive\u201d workforce into apprenticeship programs, he said, in anticipation of at least 700 new union construction jobs on the Sixers site and other projects.<\/p>\n

Adelman said consultants believe that as many as 9,000 professionals, trades members and managers may eventually work on the arena.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Sixers owner invests $10M into Philly’s Mosaic in bid to build firm into Black-owned real estate juggernaut<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Hughes said he expects the developers to agree to hire at least 40% of workers from underrepresented communities. Mosaic cofounder Greg Reaves said that he and his colleagues at the firm are \u201cskilled in bringing in some of the most diverse professionals, architects, civil engineers, structural engineers, geotechnical engineers\u201d and that the Sixers have made clear they want to bring in similarly diverse union contractors as a \u201cmodel\u201d for other projects.<\/p>\n

Mosaic received a $10 million investment from Harris last winter. <\/p>\n

City boosters cheered the plan. \u201cMarket Street is a dead zone,\u201d said John Fry, president of Drexel University, who said he’s been a fan of Adelman’s since they served on the first University City District board in 1998. \u201cGiven the state of this city, putting something like this in one of our most important commercial districts is exactly what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis couldn’t have come at a better time,\u201d said at-large City Councilmember Allan Domb. \u201cIt will help with public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

The development plan units three billionaires who got to know each other watching Sixers home games from courtside seats and who have grown very wealthy in the US real estate and private investment boom of the last 30 years \u2014 Harris as cofounder of Apollo Global Management, Blitzer as a senior executive of Blackstone Group, and Adelman as chief executive of Campus Apartments.<\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: What if the Phillies ballpark had been built in Center City?<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Harris, the Sixers’ managing partner, and Blitzer, co-managing partner, are University of Pennsylvania graduates; their firms’ income includes annual fees from clients such as the Pennsylvania state pension systems. Like the owners, Adelman is not only a real estate mogul, but also a private-company investor. He cofounded Philadelphia-based FS Investments and owns Darco Capital, a private equity firm.<\/p>\n

Besides the Sixers, Harris and Blitzer are owners of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Crystal Palace football club of England’s Premier soccer league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve truly enjoyed our time at Wells Fargo center,\u201d Blitzer said, but are now \u201cexcited to give our fans and players an arena like they’ve never experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The managing partners of the 76ers are teaming up with Philadelphia apartment developer David J. Adelman and others in a proposal to build a new NBA arena at 10th and Market Streets, which they say will create investment and employment opportunities in a city that needs them. The Sixers’ Josh Harris and David Blitzer want …<\/p>\n

Sixers new arena proposal at 10th and Market would demolish part of Fashion District<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[9811],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21221,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/philadelphia-76ers-propose-move-to-new-arena-at-fashion-district-in-center-city-called-76-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":21377,"position":0},"title":"Philadelphia 76ers propose move to new arena at Fashion District in Center City, called ’76 Place’","date":"July 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The Philadelphia 76ers are proposing building a brand-new arena in Center City, moving it from South Philadelphia to the Fashion District.It would be called 76 Place at Market East. The team launched a website Thursday at 76place.com explaining the proposal.The team's lease at the Wells Fargo Center\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21190,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/philadelphia-76ers-1-3-billion-project-calls-for-downtown-arena-by-2031-32\/","url_meta":{"origin":21377,"position":1},"title":"Philadelphia 76ers’ $1.3 billion project calls for downtown arena by 2031-32","date":"July 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"5:56 AM ETTim BontempsESPN The Philadelphia 76ers are creating a new development company that will spearhead a $1.3 billion project to build a privately funded arena in the city's downtown, the team announced Thursday morning.While the 76ers don't plan to be in the arena until the 2031-32 season -- the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3552,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/new-mock-trade-has-sixers-acquiring-kevin-durant-from-nets-in-a-deal\/","url_meta":{"origin":21377,"position":2},"title":"New mock trade has Sixers acquiring Kevin Durant from Nets in a deal","date":"July 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Philadelphia 76ers, just as any team would, were probably one of the many teams who gave the Brooklyn Nets a call when the news came out that Kevin Durant wanted out of Brooklyn. Joel Embiid certainly had a reaction to the news.The Durant era has not gone as expected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/resizer\/LFiqewehi0ZEcLnJY3dCY07o0LU=\/760x507\/smart\/filters:format(webp)\/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com\/pmn\/SLWORI7EOFBOVD7SX22UIJSGDY.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}