CRE Players Say 2026 Could Be Philly's Turning Point, But Only With More City Investment

A spotlight will be on Philadelphia this year with the nation’s 250th anniversary and a particularly robust summer sports schedule, including six World Cup matches and the MLB All-Star Game.

This could mark the start of an upswing for the city’s real estate market, but that isn’t a foregone conclusion. Local industry leaders aren’t necessarily holding their breath, and they say strategic public investments are needed to maintain momentum in 2027 and beyond. 

“This is supposed to be a catalytic event to future growth,” CBRE Senior Managing Director of Greater Philadelphia Mamadou Baldé said Thursday during Bisnow’s Philadelphia 2026 Forecast event at the Loews Hotel.

“The hope is people that haven’t been exposed to Philadelphia come and realize how much potential and opportunity there is here,” he added.

But Baldé cautioned that prudent developers shouldn’t make bets on new projects based on the especially high activity of an event-filled year. 

“The fundamentals still take precedence,” he said of Philly, which was previously the nation’s poorest big city before falling to the No. 2 spot last year. 

While this summer’s sports spectacles won't be on the same scale, Visit Philadelphia CEO Angela Val is taking inspiration from the transformation metro Atlanta saw around the Summer Olympics it hosted in 1996.

The games, which blasted inspiring images of Georgia into homes around the world, were an inflection point for what became one of the nation’s hottest markets. Greater Atlanta’s population has grown by roughly 50% since then as residents have capitalized on investments made at that time, including an expansion of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority rail system.

The momentum is still rippling through Atlanta three decades later. The city is slated to host seven World Cup matches this year, one more than Philadelphia, and will line up the games with the completion of its much-lauded Beltline mixed-use path.

“It is always good to use moments like this, really large events, and think about what they can really do for your city in the long run,” Val said.

“What I’m hoping happens is that this year goes really well, and Philadelphians take more chances and bigger swings,” she added.

Philly’s big summer is in some ways a product of sports real estate decisions made in the 1990s and 2000s.

The move to replace all of the venues in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex around that time are what made it a World Cup and MLB All-Star game contender in 2026, Wayne Avenue Enterprises President Bill Hankowsky said.

Hotel owners are already preparing for a busy summer. CoStar projects 5.1% revenue-per-available-room growth in the Philadelphia market this year, up from the 1.1% growth it calculated for 2025.

Philadelphia 2026 Director Michael Newmuis shared what the city is working on for this year. In addition to the $70M officials have invested in public safety and related operations, there will be a highway beautification effort and decorative Liberty Bells installed across the city.

But his plans stop short of the major investments CRE players would like to see to bolster Philadelphia’s future.

“It’s about infrastructure and investing in infrastructure that’s going to carry us for the next 100 years,” Argosy Real Estate partner Sara Doelger said.

Leaders of Philadelphia’s cash-strapped public transit system warned it would struggle to handle additional gametime passengers as the debate around the Philadelphia 76ers’ defunct Center City arena proposal raged in 2024.

“We need to solve the SEPTA funding problem and put it to bed,” Hankowsky said.

Last summer, the agency briefly implemented service cuts as its funding was tied up amid the partisan state budget acrimony in Harrisburg.

While SEPTA will be critical this summer, Val said international sports fans visiting for the World Cup are much more likely to walk than their American counterparts.

In that context, she highlighted the upcoming Avenue of the Arts upgrades along South Broad Street, most of which won’t be complete until long after 2026, and an effort to place pop-ups in vacant Market East storefronts.

“Market Street East needs to look amazing,” Val said.

A revitalization committee focused on the corridor convened by Mayor Cherelle Parker has been meeting since late last year, but few details from those conversations have been shared with the public so far.

Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. CEO Jodie Harris, a member of the committee, recalled fond memories of visiting the neighborhood as a child. She said it is hard to discard that nostalgia when thinking about what comes next for Market East.

“A lot of us are grappling with that historical context and trying to figure out what it looks like now,” she said.

Keystone Development + Investment President Rich Gottlieb, another member of the committee, said the corridor would be a good candidate for Pennsylvania’s Keystone Opportunity Zone program designed to funnel investment toward struggling neighborhoods.

“It’s done a great job,” he said of what the initiative has accomplished in other parts of Philly.