The redevelopment of an isolated former military hub in the depths of South Philadelphia has reached an inflection point this year, with hundreds of residents moving into a new complex and the developer preparing to bring in new food options.
:quality(75))
The Philadelphia Navy Yard is a longstanding industrial and office destination that now hosts 17,000 workers daily. But it didn’t have any housing until March, when Korman Communities and Ensemble/Mosaic delivered 614 units across two buildings on a site owned by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.
Those units are now 40% occupied, and the developers have secured restaurant tenants to accommodate these new residents, Korman Communities CEO Brad Korman said during Bisnow’s Philadelphia State of the Market on Thursday.
“We started going after the restaurants two years ago, and they weren't ready to come,” Korman said onstage at the Live! Casino & Hotel, which overlooks his firm's project.
“The construction wasn't done. It didn't feel like a neighborhood. There wasn't that vibrancy at night. There was a chicken-and-the-egg thing going on.”
He said that sentiment has shifted, with hundreds of residents now living in the new buildings, AVE Normandy and AVE Constitution. The developer said 50% of the residents are 34 or younger, and 70% have moved from outside the city.
Korman Communities declined to reveal which businesses will be opening in the 40K SF of retail it developed at the complex, but associate Sam Korman did provide some details in a statement.
“We are now in advanced discussions on all of those spaces, including several signed [letters of intent],” he said. “These users include full service restaurants/bars, fast casual food providers, all day cafes, and service providers.”
:quality(75))
Brad Korman said during the event that these restaurants will be “Philadelphia names that you know and recognize and be excited about.”
The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., a city-affiliated entity in charge of the Navy Yard, awarded Ensemble/Mosaic the exclusive rights to develop 109 of the complex’s 1,200 acres in 2020.
PIDC’s 2022 master plan ultimately calls for 4,000 units to be built on that section of the Navy Yard over the course of two decades.
SEPTA last month extended its Route 45 bus line into the Navy Yard, connecting it to public transit for the first time since redevelopment of the former military site began in 2000. The complex is located in the most remote part of South Philadelphia, 4 miles from the core of Center City and nearly a mile past the terminus of the Broad Street subway.
Lubert-Adler CEO Dean Adler — a major Philadelphia developer who is under contract to buy the city’s largest office building and is eyeing its largest mall — said the Navy Yard has a long way to go to reach PIDC’s mixed-use vision.
:quality(75))
“It’s so much easier to go invest in a neighborhood that’s already in place than try to create a neighborhood,” Adler interjected from the audience during Brad Korman’s panel Thursday.
“The key to what you need to do is it's not during the day or access to jobs,” he added. “It’s when you have your daughter at 7:30 at night walk out of the apartment building and walk the neighborhood, if the streets are vital and vibrant, that's your best amenity. So I think the challenge — and I think you're up to the challenge, so I applaud you — is you got to get those restaurants. You gotta turn on the lights after 7 p.m. at night. And if you do it, you win big.”
Korman responded that the residential experience available at the Navy Yard is profoundly different from what is available in other parts of the city and appeals to a different type of tenant. The complex has just two points of egress, both of which have a guard station.
“There is no nonsense that happens at the Navy Yard at night,” he said. “It's just very different.”
The developer did concede that activating the retail portion of his buildings has been a lengthier process than he had hoped, but said the momentum for the project is now there.
“We wish we had the restaurants a year or two ago,” Korman said. “It wasn't practical. It's happening now.”
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)