Pop-Ups Slated For Vacant Market East Retail As Leaders Eye Incentives For Long-Term Revival
Changes are coming soon to the Market East corridor as Philadelphia prepares to host World Cup matches and America's 250th anniversary celebrations. Officials are also considering how to spur a broader boost for the area, including potentially offering tax abatements for real estate projects.
Eight pop-up stores are planned to open on the 900 block of Market Street by early May — the month before FIFA World Cup 2026 starts — Center City District CEO Prema Gupta said Wednesday at the organization’s member meeting.
“They will be small, diverse creative local businesses — exactly the kind of energy we think the corridor has been missing,” she said.
The spaces were donated by Macerich’s Fashion District and a joint venture between Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and Comcast Spectacor, which purchased several properties on the block last June.
The JV’s plan to demolish parts of the block drew widespread criticism when it surfaced in October and has been postponed, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
The entities that provided the spaces upgraded them at their own expense, Gupta said. Philly-based nonprofit Meantime will help pick the specific pop-up retailers, which have not been announced.
CCD is plotting a public art campaign covering 5.5K SF of frontage across 10 locations as well as tree plantings, light pole painting and improvements to SEPTA infrastructure along the corridor.
The city is also preparing a long-term plan for the area.
Council Member Mark Squilla, a member of the Market East Revitalization Committee who represents the corridor and the surrounding neighborhoods, said the city will solicit public feedback this summer and intends to release a plan by the end of the year.
Parkway Corp. CEO Robert Zuritsky said many committee members want help from the government.
“There will be some city incentives, maybe some state incentives to try to spur some investment,” he said.
Committee members don’t yet have a unified view of what those incentives should entail, Zuritsky said.
“It ranges from throwing the kitchen sink of every incentive that you have available to you in the state to just doing a 20-year abatement for new construction,” he said.
Josh Rosenbloom of Morningside Heights LLC, which owns the Steele Building offices on 11th and Ludlow streets, said short-term progress can be made before the long-term plan is in place.
“There’s a value to saying there’s little things that we can do now,” he said.
Rosenbloom floated expanding Reading Terminal Market so it has frontage on the corridor.
Vermont's Bennington College took over the defunct University of the Arts’ dance program and the Lantern Theater Co., which is looking for a new space. Rosenbloom said the college could help bring new creative activity to the corridor.
Zuritsky said he believes cutting city business and wage taxes would be a powerful incentive for redevelopment on Market East and in the rest of the city.
But he doesn’t expect a revitalization to happen overnight, especially in today's economic climate.
“Development takes a long time,” Zuritsky said. “It’s a very uncertain, difficult time to get anything started now anyway.”
