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Category: Commercial Real Estate

These are the buildings to watch in Philly in 2026
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Philly rising

Philly’s biggest development projects could bring more than 2,500 new homes and apartments; 1,800 parking spaces; and 118,000 square feet of storage space.

A rendering of the 380-foot tower proposed near Pennsport by a New York capital management firm.Perkins Eastman

By

Jake Blumgart

and

John Duchneskie

Published Dec 18, 2025

The real estate industry in Philadelphia has been in a lull these past few years, slowed by heightened interest rates, the weakening of the 10-year property tax abatement, and an apartment glut in some parts of town.

Some developers still have big plans though, and if they want to build more than 50 new homes, or any project of over 50,000 square feet, they need to submit their plans to the Planning Commission for public input via the Civic Design Review committee.

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This year, 18 projects across Philadelphia went before the committee. These projects are large enough to remake neighborhood commercial corridors and create new hyperlocal landmarks, for better or worse. Most will be breaking ground in the new year.

Here’s your guide to what the committee considered this year.

What is Civic Design Review?

The Civic Design Review committee is an advisory-only board of architects, planners, and other experts who provide feedback on developments that will have an outsized impact on the cityscape.

“CDR gives communities a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard, educates the public on principles of good design and use of shared spaces, requires developers to respond to questions in a public forum,” says Jessie Lawrence, the city’s director of Planning and Development.

But just because a project goes through Civic Design Review doesn’t always mean it will get built. The 76ers proposed Center City arena went through the process, and famously came to naught earlier this year.

Nonetheless, Civic Design Review is still a rough proxy for what Philadelphians can expect to see in the near future. Here’s your guide to what the committee considered this year.

275 apartment units for Southwest Center City

1601 Washington Ave. | Ori Feibush of OCF Realty

Atrium Design Group

The former site of Hoa Binh Plaza has seen multiple redevelopment efforts since the popular Vietnamese shopping mall’s pre-pandemic closure. This latest is the third from Feibush, who is offering a scaled-down version of an earlier 400-unit plan, with 10% of the units slated for affordable housing and 200 underground parking spaces.

Status: Ground breaking is slated for the second half of 2026.

84 apartments in Southwest Center City

914 S. Broad St. | Carl Dranoff of Dranoff Properties

JKRP Architects

Dranoff has been developing residential buildings on this stretch of South Broad Street for two decades. He has planned a new apartment building on this property for years. He saw the drive-through McDonald’s that formerly occupied the site and closed in 2021, as a poor fit for one of Center City’s major thoroughfares.

Status: Ground breaking is projected for autumn 2026.

372-car garage for Fishtown and Northern Liberties

53-67 E. Laurel St. | Bridge One Management

Designblendz

As apartments have sprouted along this stretch of the Delaware River in recent years, new parking spaces have not kept apace. Investors hired Bridge One Management to brainstorm new uses for this property, and the company thinks demand for parking is high enough for a new garage. The project also has 14,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and another 16,000 on the roof.

Status: Permits have not yet been filed.

59-room hotel for Fishtown

1224 Frankford Ave. | Roland Kassis of Kassis & Co.

Gnome Architects

The developer who most helped remake Fishtown into the ultrahip neighborhood it is today has long wanted to build a hotel on this vacant lot on the commercial corridor. An earlier, taller version of the project was approved before the COVID-19 pandemic, but those permits lapsed.

Status: Ground breaking is slated for the second half of 2026.

75 apartments in Kensington

3408 B St. | Dwight City Group

Raymond F. Rola

Far from the parts of Kensington where development is booming, this apartment project is meant to be priced to attract people who already live in the neighborhood. The developer, known for adaptive reuse, plans to revive the two-story remnants of a derelict warehouse as a base for the six-story apartment building.

Status: The project awaits a zoning board hearing in January.

162 units for rent and purchase in Port Richmond

2620 and 2650 Castor Ave. | Tim Ajvazi

Ambit Architecture

These two neighboring projects are the work of the same developer and were considered by the Civic Design Review in tandem. At 2650 Castor Ave., 68 homes are planned across eight triplexes and 22 duplexes. At 2620 Castor Ave., there is a proposal for a four-story apartment building of mostly one-bedroom units, which the zoning board approved earlier.

Status:: The zoning board approved the project on 1650 Castor Ave. on Wednesday.

232 new homes in North Philadelphia

2200 N. Eighth St. | Andre Herszaft

Harman Deutsch Ohler Architecture

This project has been in the works for two years, and to gain community support before the zoning board the New Jersey-based developer has more than halved the number of planned units. Instead of apartments, the old trolley barn at this location will be replaced by dozens of duplexes and triplexes, assuming it wins permission from the ZBA.

Status: Neither zoning nor demolition permits have been filed yet.

384 apartments in Roxborough

4889 Umbria St. | Genesis Properties and GMH Communities

Oombra Architects

This apartment building is the largest in recent memory for the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Roxborough, and while community groups were unhappy, they had few means to push back against it. The developer plans almost one-for-one parking at the site, but no commercial development, although a few existing businesses on site will remain, including furniture retailer Love City Vintage and Javies beer distributor.

Status: Ground breaking is slated for next year.

167 apartments in Manayunk

4045-61 Main St. | Urban Conversions

CBP Architects

This seven-story project from architect CBP Architects required the demolition of a historic textile mill to move forward. Its proximity to the Schuylkill presented another challenge, which developers solved by proposing 160 parking spaces on its first two floors to lift the project out of the flood zone.

The project also required permission from the zoning board, where a height reduction was mandated. But the developer successfully argued the project was impossible with fewer stories and the ZBA reconsidered and will now allow its original size.

Status: Permitted, but ground has not been broken yet.

45 units for East Germantown

6225 Germantown Ave. | MGMT Residential

Ingram/Sageser

This deserted warehouse, tucked off Germantown Avenue, is slated for a small, four-story apartment building with a floor of parking. The developer still needs to demolish the old building.

Status: A demolition permit was issued in July, but the building still stands.

81-unit apartment building for Mt. Airy

6903-15 Germantown Ave. | Tierview Development

Barton Partners

This five-story building includes space for retail, 11 parking spots in the rear, and plenty of greenery and brick detailing to fit in with its surroundings. Seven of the units are priced to be accessible to lower-income families, but all of the units are targeted to below-market-rate prices.

Status: Ground breaking slated for the first half of 2026.

495-car garage in University City

17 N. 41st St.. | University City Associates

ISA

This garage is called University Place 5.0 and is meant to accompany the developer’s earlier life-sciences-oriented University Place 3.0 next door. It is meant to provide vehicle storage for the developer’s existing holdings, and especially for the city’s criminal forensics laboratory, which will have reserved use for a fifth of the space. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier fought for the crime lab in her district, and she had to change the property’s zoning to enable the garage.

Status: Ground breaking is slated for early next year.

160 apartments in Southwest Philly

6635-6639 Chester Ave. | Haverford Square Properties

Wisdomtree Group

This West Philadelphia developer is expanding to a new part of the city with a project that redevelops the former St. Divine Mercy School into a 35-unit apartment building along with two new buildings to house the rest of the units. Sixteen will be slated for lower-income residents.

Status: Leasing for the former school begins in January; the two new buildings have yet to break ground.

204 apartments in North Philly

1322 West Clearfield St.| J Paul Inc.

Canno Design

This building, from architects CANNODesign, stirred controversy in its corner of North Philadelphia over what neighbors saw as a lack of adequate parking (although there were 82 underground spaces in the plans). The project needed a variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), and was granted permission to move forward in December.

Status: Approved by the zoning board, but hasn’t broken ground yet.

65 affordable apartments in Sharswood

2006 Cecil B. Moore Ave. | PHA and the Frankel Enterprises

Blackney Hayes

This senior housing development is one of the last pieces of the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s 10-year redevelopment of North Philadelphia’s Sharswood neighborhood. (It moved its headquarters there from Center City.) This piece of the project is being orchestrated in partnership with the Frankel brothers, who are known for affordable housing projects across the city.

Status: Ground breaking is slated for autumn 2026.

620 apartments for Pennsport

1341 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. | Brevet Capital Management

Perkins Eastman

This property to the east of Pennsport has seen many mega-project proposals come and go. The latest from a New York capital management firm promises hundreds of new units, and more towers if the first round goes well.

Status: Permits have been filed but a ground-breaking date remains unknown.

1,005-car garage in Grays Ferry

3000 Greys Ferry Ave. | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

THA Consulting Inc.

CHOP is in the midst of a big expansion, and wants more employee parking. The site is about a mile from the hospital complex, and CHOP plans shuttles for the last leg of commutes. The project stirred controversy for its location in a low-income neighborhood with already elevated asthma levels, which advocates say will be exacerbated by more cars.

Status: Under construction.

118,000 square feet of storage space in Fox Chase

7801 Oxford Ave. | BG Capital

Vissi Architecture

The developer reduced the planned size of its self-storage space to stave off community opposition to the project, which won approvals from the ZBA this summer. But BG Capital never intended to build the project itself, and instead is seeking to sell the permitted property to a developer with more experience in the self-storage industry.

Status: Permitted, unbuilt, and for sale.

Staff Contributors

Reporting: Jake Blumgart

Graphics: John Duchneskie

Editing and Digital Production: Erica Palan

Copy Editing: Lidija Dorjkhand

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December 18, 2025
Rally House plans to open its first Center City store

It’s your city. It’s your (Ritten)house. It’s your Rally House.

The sports apparel store with the earworm of a jingle plans to open its first Center City location in a former Rite Aid near Rittenhouse Square.

The Kansas-based chain has asked the city’s art commission for approval to put up signage outside the nearly 13,000-foot storefront at 17th and Chestnut Streets, according to its application, which is set to be reviewed at a Wednesday meeting. Rally House spokespeople did not return requests for comment Tuesday.

The company’s application was first reported Monday by the Philadelphia Business Journal.

How is Center City retail doing? It depends what street you’re on.

The storefront is situated in the historic Provident Trust Co. building, the upper floors of which are home to the Club Quarters Hotel.

The ground-floor retail space was occupied by a Rite Aid until January 2024, when the Chestnut Street store became yet another casualty of the Philly-based chain’s financial struggles. Rite Aid closed all its stores over the summer amid its second bankruptcy in less than two years.

Since the Rittenhouse Rite Aid closed, Spirit Halloween has occupied the storefront in the months leading up to Halloween.

Since Rite Aid closed two years ago, the ground-floor retail space in the Provident Trust Co. building has been occupied seasonally by Spirit Halloween, but is otherwise vacant.

The building is owned by a partnership registered to Philadelphia-based developer Neal Rodin, according to property records. Rodin did not return requests for comment Tuesday.

Rally House already has about two dozen locations in the Philadelphia region, but the vast majority of them are in the suburbs. It has three city locations — on Temple’s campus, in West Philadelphia near Drexel and Penn, and in Roxborough.

If Rally House opens at 17th and Chestnut, it would bring continued momentum to the retail corridor around Rittenhouse Square, which has recently welcomed a slew of new businesses, including the luxury women’s fashion company Aritzia and North America’s first Nike Jordan World of Flight store.

It would also mark the latest example of how zombie Rite Aids can be resurrected.

From 2024: What’s become of Rite Aid zombies

Over the past three years, more than 170 Rite Aids have shuttered across the Philadelphia region, with dozens of stores closing even before the chain announced it was going out of business.

Like the Rittenhouse space, former Rite Aids are often 8,000 to 16,000 square feet, which is not ideal for many potential tenants, experts say. But some of these pharmacy shells have found new life as small grocers, discount stores, and medical offices.

Soon, sports apparel store may be added to that list.

December 16, 2025
How Pennsylvanians really feel about AI data centers, according to a new survey

Data center opponents outnumber supporters in Southeast Pennsylvania, according to a recent survey from Real Clear Politics and Emerson College.

Overall, however, the poll found that Pennsylvanians have mixed opinions on artificial intelligence and the data centers that power AI tools.

Several such centers have recently been proposed in the Philadelphia area, and some of them have been met with neighborhood pushback.

Amazon is building a 2-million-square-foot data center in Falls Township, Bucks County. A 1.3-million-square-foot data center is proposed at the former Pennhurst State School and Hospital in East Vincent Township, Chester County. And near Conshohocken, plans for a 2-million-square-foot data center had to be withdrawn over legal issues, but can be resubmitted at any time.

More than 150 data centers already exist in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to Data Center Map, which tracks the facilities nationwide, but not all of them fuel AI.

Human reporters explain why AI data centers are so controversial in the Philly suburbs and beyond

According to the new survey, 38% of all Pennsylvanians support data centers being built in the Commonwealth, while 35% oppose, and 27% are neutral or have no opinion. But when asked about data centers being built in their area, residents’ opposition grows: 34% support, 42% oppose, and 24% are neutral or have no opinion about centers being built in or near their communities.

And opposition to close-to-home data center construction is among the strongest in the southeast part of Pennsylvania, second only to opposition in the northeast, a hot spot for data center construction. In Southeast Pennsylvania, 45% of respondents strongly or somewhat oppose data centers, while 54% strongly or somewhat oppose them in the northeast.

Among Pennsylvanians’ worries about data centers, 70% are concerned about the amount of water data centers use, and 71% are concerned about the amount of electricity data centers use.

Edmund J. Campbell, attorney for developer Brian O’Neill, spoke to the Plymouth Township zoning board in November before abruptly withdrawing the application for a Conshohocken-area data center over legal issues. Residents, some of whom had rallied against the proposal, packed the room.

Seventy percent of Pennsylvanians strongly or somewhat support requiring data centers to provide their own energy generation, rather than get electricity from the grid.

When it comes to AI more broadly, just over half of Pennsylvanians told pollsters they believe AI will decrease the number of available jobs in their industry, while 16% said they think it will increase the number of jobs (29% said they thought it would have no impact).

Nearly twice as many residents think AI will have a net negative impact on the economy compared to how many think it will have a positive impact (48% said negative, 25% said positive). When respondents were asked about the environment, the results were similar (46% vs. 21%).

The survey of 2,000 Pennsylvania adults was conducted online and via text between Nov. 19 and 23.

December 15, 2025
This Gilded Age estate and wedding venue in Montco is adding a boutique event space and distillery

The Elkins Estate, which already hosts weddings in its main mansion, is set to add a boutique event space and a distillery in the new year.

In the fall, the Tudor-style Chelten House will open for smaller gatherings of 100 or fewer people, and include 16 guest rooms, said Jeanne Cretella, cofounder of By Landmark hospitality.

Elsewhere on the 42 acres, a distillery called Morgan Stillhouse is set to open by the summer in the grounds’ former stables, Cretella said. Managed by spirits writer and researcher Carlo DeVito, the distillery plans to produce vodka, gin, and whiskey, which customers can try at an on-site tasting room. It will debut with its rollout of Stork Club Vodka, reviving the brand associated with the storied New York nightclub.

“We’re really looking forward to our next phase,” Cretella said, noting that the Chelten House “will be the perfect setting for those much more intimate events, whether it’s seminars or retreats or business meetings.”

In 2019, Jeanne and Frank Cretella’s company, By Landmark, bought the sprawling Cheltenham property for $6.5 million from the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de Ricci, who had used the grounds for religious retreats. At the time, the couple said they intended to spend $20 million to restore six historic buildings on the site.

A couple walks through a room in the Elstowe Manor at Elkins Estate.

By Landmark’s final investment numbers were not available Friday, according to a spokesperson, as renovations are ongoing.

The Cretellas initially envisioned a luxury boutique hotel with more than 100 guest rooms, a spa, a restaurant, and other amenities. At one point, they even considered installing a heliport on the site.

Then the pandemic happened, Jeanne Cretella recalled Friday.

Despite the challenges of that time, “we are so proud that we were able to open up Elstowe Manor,” the estate’s 70,000-square-foot centerpiece that required extensive plumbing, electrical, heating, and ADA upgrades to be brought up to code, Cretella said.

A room at the Elkins Estate’s Elstowe Manor, its main mansion, set up for a wedding reception.

“We made the decision after COVID that it would be best … to have the rooms only open to event guests,” she said.

With 50-foot frescoed ceilings and a grand ballroom with a glass skylight, Elstowe Manor can host 300-person events and includes 69 guest rooms.

More than 100 weddings and events have been held at the manor in the past two years (The venue also hosted weddings in the early 2010s when it was briefly owned by a nonprofit that went bankrupt).

A couple kisses during their wedding ceremony outside the Elkins Estate’s Elstowe Manor.

At the estate these days, couples and their guests feel like they “are somewhere really special, and have the ability to really enjoy utilizing the estate for the whole weekend,” Cretella said.

With its more intimate setting, the Chelten House is meant to complement the Elstowe Manor, Cretella said. The home features Italian Renaissance Revival designs, with terracotta roof tiles, large arched windows, wood-paneled rooms, and marble fireplaces.

While each part of the property is set apart and has its own entrance, Cretella said she foresees the Chelten House being busy during the week (when most corporate retreats occur) and the Elstowe Manor bustling with wedding festivities on the weekends.

Some larger weddings may use both the manor and the Chelten House for their events and accommodations, she said.

Cretella said they don’t foresee adding more amenities to the property in the near future.

“The original plan to have a restaurant was definitely in conjunction with having a hotel that was open to the public,” not just event guests, she said. So “opening up a restaurant is not on the horizon.”

But, she added, “we won’t say never.”

For now, Cretella said they are focused on their events, including opportunities to welcome the public onto the historic site.

Earlier this year, the estate opened a podcast recording studio and demonstration kitchen, which Cretella said they hope local school students can use. They are also looking to bring professional actors and creators into the space.

In November, By Landmark opened the estate up for paid public tours. A tour in early January, which costs $30 a person, is already sold out.

Cretella said the estate plans to host a Valentine’s Day dinner, open to the public, with an optional overnight stay after the meal.

For the Chelten House, booking for small private events will open in the new year, Cretella said.

Based in North Jersey, By Landmark operates nearly 30 venues in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They include the Hotel du Village and the Logan Inn in New Hope.

In the late 1800s, the Elkins Estate was built as a countryside retreat for railroad magnate William Lukens Elkins, who is credited with helping to form what would eventually become SEPTA and the Philadelphia Gas Works.

December 13, 2025
Who is living in all of Center City’s new apartment buildings?

When Adam Sawyer and his wife, Marissa Tan, moved to Philadelphia in 2024 from Baltimore, they were attracted to Center City by its proximity to work and mass transit.

The couple figured if they sold their car, they could even afford to rent in one of the thousands of new, high-rise apartments that have been built across Center City over the last 10 years.

Tan had just gotten a new job with the Cooper University Hospital in Camden, and Adam needed access to 30th Street Station for work. They eventually settled on the PMC Property Group’s Riverwalk North at 23rd and Arch Streets and have been impressed by the city, its transit system, and life without a car.

Adam Sawyer and his wife, Marissa Tan, moved to Philadelphia in 2024 from Baltimore.

“One of the things I love about living in a city is that you’ll be walking down the street and there are five different events you didn’t even know about,” Sawyer said. “Festivals, farmers markets, just activity, people doing things. I love that Philadelphia has so much energy.”

In many ways Sawyer and Tan — who are both 35 — are representative of the people who have taken up residence in the new apartment buildings across Center City. Between Pine and Vine Streets, river to river, 3,500 new apartments have opened since 2023.

Center City District (CCD) set out to learn more about who is calling these apartments home, with a survey of more than two dozen buildings constructed since 2015.

Like Sawyer and Tan, the vast majority of respondents to CCD’s survey are under 45 (83%), more than half don’t own a car (55%), and close to half moved from outside the Philadelphia area (44%). Sawyer works remotely like 21% of respondents, and Tan works in healthcare like 32% of them.

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In a city where a fifth of all residents live in poverty, the respondents aren’t representative of the average Philadelphian in many ways. The buildings surveyed have an average rent of $2,645, well above the median of $1,387.

But the results show that there is a market for the kind of new buildings that are still being proposed. They also highlight that many people are attracted to the most central parts of Philadelphia because it offers more density, walkability, and other urban characteristics that few other American cities can boast.

“People actively choose Philadelphia over other cities and metropolitan areas because we outperform them in some ways,” said Clint Randall, vice president of Economic Development with CCD, which is funded by downtown property owners and provides advocacy and services like additional security and cleaning downtown.

“The city spent so many decades shrinking,” Randall said. “When you see this entire skyline of high-rise apartment buildings emerge, it contradicts what longtime Philadelphians think they know about this place, which is that it does not grow or attract residents.”

Reversing reverse commuting

Center City District’s survey confirmed a longtime finding of the organization’s other research reports: People who live downtown are likely to work there or very close by.

In Philadelphia, reverse commuting is common, a testament to the fact that many private-sector employers have remained outside the city to avoid wage and business taxes. But among survey respondents, only 12% commuted to the suburbs for work compared to almost 40% citywide.

Over half of respondents work in either Center City or University City, and a similar proportion work in either healthcare (32%) or in the jobs more typically associated with office towers: “business, professional, or financial services” (27%). Twenty-one percent work from home.

“A lot of people are in medicine, in healthcare. I see a lot of scrubs,” said Kaz Rivera-Gorski, about her building One Cathedral Square at 17th and Race Streets.

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“I would imagine there’s a good amount of people that work remotely, too,” said Rivera-Gorski, who is a management consultant who works from home. “I see people on their laptops in the shared spaces during the day.”

Seventy percent of respondents said their jobs are within walking, biking, or transit distance from their homes, while 80% of them said that owning a car was not necessary to enjoy daily life in Philadelphia.

That’s part of what attracted Sawyer and Tan, even though another part of Philadelphia’s allure was that it was closer to family in central and eastern Pennsylvania (the couple have a Zipcar membership).

“While I do drive, I really, really dislike driving,” Sawyer said. “I’ve lost people. Everybody has, to either accidents or crashes or DUIs. So we were open to selling our car and became more and more convinced it was a good idea.”

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Retaining out-of-towners

Randall said that he was surprised by the proportion of CCD’s respondents who reported having moved to Philadelphia from outside the region. (A recent Realtor.com report showed that Philadelphia switched from having mostly local interest in rental listings before the pandemic to mostly out-of-towners today.)

The survey also found that the majority of Center City dwellers planned to be living in Philadelphia in three to five years, with 45% planning to continue renting and 16% hoping to buy.

“You hear about the transience of other places like D.C. or Boston, and it seems like people are here [in Philadelphia] and they intend to stay,” Randall said.

That is certainly the goal of Annika Verma, a student at Temple University who lives in the Logan Lofts in Callowhill.

“I am already calculating: Can I get an entry-level job? What salary would work for the rent in this area?” Verma said. “I would love to stay. The area seems ideal for me in terms of commuting or walking. Anything, everything is a 15-20 minute walk or bus ride away.”

Sawyer and Tan are hoping to stay in Philadelphia, too. They are currently searching Center City for a condo to buy. They may try to stay in their current Logan Square neighborhood for its proximity to the Schuylkill River Trail and 30th Street Station.

“We love it,” said Sawyer, who notes that they’ve lived in three cities in Texas, Cooperstown in New York, and Baltimore before this. “But our favorite place we’ve ever lived is here in Philadelphia.”

December 11, 2025
Longtime Philly grocer Jeff Brown buys his fourth ShopRite-anchored complex for $30.8 million

Jeff Brown, the fourth-generation Philly grocer, has added another ShopRite shopping center to his real estate portfolio.

The Brown family, which operates a dozen local ShopRites, recently purchased the Shoppes at Wissinoming for $30.8 million, according to JLL real estate, which represented the seller. The nearly 98,000-square-foot complex in Northeast Philadelphia is anchored by one of Brown’s ShopRites.

“We think it’s important to own the real estate where our supermarkets are located, so we can ensure the long-term healthy food access for the local community and the overall sustainability of our stores,” Brown, executive chairman of Brown’s Super Stores, said in a statement. “We are excited to add the Shoppes at Wissinoming shopping center to our real estate properties.”

Brown said he owns the shopping centers surrounding his ShopRites in Cheltenham, Brooklawn, and Roxborough.

The ShopRite in Roxborough, pictured in 2020, is run by Jeff Brown and located in a complex owned by the longtime grocer.

The family also runs ShopRites in Eastwick, Nicetown, Parkside, Port Richmond, South Philadelphia, Bensalem, Fairless Hills, and Mullica Hill..

The ShopRite at the Shoppes at Wissinoming opened in 2018, and was acquired by Brown earlier this year. The grocery store anchors the center, occupying about 68,000 square feet.

The complex is 98% occupied, according to JLL. Other tenants include Wawa, Popeyes, and AT&T.

“The transaction reflects broader trends in the retail investment market, where investors continue to prioritize grocery-anchored properties with proven tenant performance,” said Jim Galbally, JLL senior managing director. “Shoppes at Wissinoming has an ideal combination of dominant grocery anchor, diverse tenant mix, and strategic location within one of Philadelphia’s most densely populated submarkets.”

Brown and his wife, Sandra, have been running grocery stores for nearly four decades. Over the years, the family has received national attention for opening stores in underserved neighborhoods, hiring people who were formerly incarcerated, and partnering with Black-owned businesses.

Better Box owner Tamekah Bost (left) talks with ShopRite owner Jeff Brown at the Cheltenham ShopRite in 2021. Brown has brought local restaurateurs into his stores.

An outspoken critic of former Mayor Jim Kenney’s soda tax, Brown ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor in 2023. During his run, the city’s Board of Ethics accused Brown of campaign-finance violations, over which Brown later sued. The lawsuit was dismissed last year by a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge. During Brown’s campaign, The Inquirer also reported that his grocery stores had received $1.5 million from a nonprofit he founded.

After Brown lost to now-Mayor Cherelle L. Parker in the Democratic primary, his grocery chain went on to further expand its holdings, making a substantial investment in DiBruno Brothers in 2024.

Brown’s Super Stores is headquartered in Gloucester County and also runs the Fresh Grocer stores near City Avenue and in Wyncote.

December 9, 2025
The Wanamaker Building’s new owners reveal plans for rooftop pool and a sunny Grand Court

The Wanamaker Building was built to be an icon of modern retail, a colossal temple of middle-class consumerism in the heart of Philadelphia.

Over 100 years later, the palatial department stores of Wanamaker’s heyday are gone, and the building’s new owners are remaking it for a different age following the closure of Macy’s earlier this year. The building will offer loft-style apartments and, plans filed with the city show, a rooftop pool.

New York-based TF Cornerstone has submitted plans to the Philadelphia Historical Commission that show the changes to the retail space. Both the exterior and parts of the interior — the Grand Court and organ — are protected. The developer is seeking permission to add more entrances and retail space on the ground floor, among other changes.

TF Cornerstone and local partner Alterra Property Group plan to resurrect original aspects of the building’s design, while acknowledging the realities of retail today, which means carving out space on the street and within the building for smaller businesses.

“It’s most likely not going to be one tenant across the entire area. Retail is just different” today, said Mark Faulkner, an architect with New York-based Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), which is in charge of the design of the building’s retail section.

“We’ve been providing a lobby and an arcade that leads you to that center space but also allows for smaller retail and smaller individual stores around the ground floor and some of the upper floors,” Faulkner said. In the Grand Court itself, “we’ve been focused on a food and beverage offering.”

Renderings created by PAU also show two new entrances on Market Street, one on Chestnut, another on 13th and on Juniper. The proposals submitted to the city include options with multicolored or white themed signage.

The signs themselves would be made of bronze with backlit acrylic faces. The colorful sign option could match a prospective tenant’s logo.

A rendering of the Wanamaker Building with multiple new storefronts on Market Street, with white signage (another version offered multi-hued signs).

The Chestnut Street ground floor of the building has already seen some new entryways and retail spaces added, such as the Starbucks at the southeastern corner.

Inside the building, one of the biggest changes will be the removal of a steel platform that covers the huge, historic skylight and blocks the sun from warming the Grand Court, as TF Cornerstone and Alterra previously announced.

But Faulkner emphasized that only the obstructing floor, which is just a couple decades old, will be removed, not any of the building’s original touches.

The platform covering the skylight currently serves as the pre-function space for the Crystal Tea Room, which will remain open during construction. That congregation space will be relocated.

As an accompaniment to that major change, on the ground floor, the architects have also been studying the original detailing and paint schemes of the Wanamaker’s heyday to see if more of that original grandeur can be revived.

“The Grand Court is one of the most amazing parts of this project, and once people see natural light flood into that space, it will be even more amazing,” Faulkner said. The developers also will be “refreshing the finishes in the Grand Court that respond more to the original condition back from when it first opened.”

Philadelphia-based JKRP Architects is leading design of the remainder of the building, including a few floors of renovated office space, the conversion of the rest of the floors to loft-style apartments, and the rooftop.

The plans submitted to the historical commission include some aspects of JKRP’s plans, which show an 18-by-60-foot rooftop pool with a depth of four feet at the northwestern corner of the roof, near the newly operational skylight, as well as a hot tub.

TF Cornerstone plans to begin renovations in February, and the work will last years.

Until Christmas Eve, the Wanamaker’s Light Show and the Dickens Village will still be operational.

December 9, 2025
Gillian’s Wonderland Pier property is now under review for possible redevelopment

The saga of Gillian’s Wonderland Pier continues as Ocean City Council voted last night to allow the local planning board to take the next steps in the property’s future.

Councilmembers voted 4-3 to refer the 600 Boardwalk Avenue site to the Ocean City Planning Board to evaluate its possible rehabilitation.

“This is basically a first step in what could potentially be an extensive review process, if it were to continue to move forward,” said Doug Bergen, Ocean City’s public information officer.

City Council President Terry Crowley Jr. and council members Jody Levchuk, Tony Polcini, and Pete Madden voted in favor, while Keith Hartzell, Dave Winslow, and Sean Barnes voted against.

This means the council is requesting the planning board to deem the property “an area of rehabilitation,” which kick-starts a wave of inspections, public input, and planning.

In the next 45 days, Bergen said the planning board must assess the site and make a recommendation to City Council on whether the once iconic amusement park property meets the criteria for rehabilitation. If council votes to make that determination, then the site developer and owners can negotiate with City Council to devise a redevelopment plan. “With lots of further review down the road,” Bergen said.

A coalition of various business associations, from restaurants to boardwalk shops, put pressure on City Council Wednesday in a news conference. Both the presidents of the Boardwalk Merchants Association — co-owner of Surf Mall, Wes Kazmarck — and the local restaurants association — owner of Cousin’s, Bill McGinnity — were joined on Wednesday by the Philadelphian property developer Eustace Mita.

In 2021, Mita, who owns Icona Resorts, bought Gillian’s Wonderland property from the Gillian family for a reported $14 million after the property was put in foreclosure for nearly $8 million in unpaid loans.

Since the nearly century-old boardwalk amusement park closed last year, plans for the site’s redevelopment have been swirling around town. Mita initially proposed a 7-story luxury hotel, the “Icona in Wonderland Resort,” but council members refused to send that proposal to the planning board in August.

A month later, Mita announced that he was considering transforming the site into townhouses, after courting offers from Phillip Norcross (brother of South Jersey power broker George E. Norcross III) and from Virginia-based NVR Inc., to redevelop the site.

Now, the site’s future will be in the hands of the planning board’s assessment, which, for some business owners, is the right call. In a video posted to Facebook earlier this week, Kazmarck urged Ocean City residents to contact their council members and ask them to vote in favor of the planning board review.

“This is about City Council being able to make a better decision on what to do with this property. Everyone’s opinion here is a valuable opinion, but I think now we’re at that point where we should bring in experts,“ Kazmarck said. ”That’s the planning board. The planning board hires experts to evaluate the site to decide if the site should be an area of rehabilitation.”

While it may feel like redevelopment plans are coming swiftly, Kazmarck reassured residents that local business owners have been discussing these next steps since last year, he said in the video.

December 5, 2025
Penn’s Landing cap over I-95 is 30% complete, with completion hoped in 2029

The cap over I-95 between Walnut and Chestnut Streets, which will host the 12-acre Penn’s Landing Park, is about 30% complete.

After almost six years of engineering, design, and COVID-related delays, construction began in 2023, and now a lattice of steel beams extends over the southbound portion of I-95.

The cap project is anticipated to be completed in 2029, with the park installed the following year.

Construction of the cap itself is the work of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. When it is completed, the Delaware River Waterfront Corp. (DRWC) will build the park and its amenities on top.

Plans call for it to include a water feature, skating rink, amphitheater, sprawling playground with custom equipment, and a mass timber building designed by architect Kieran Timberlake.

“The vast majority of the park is open green space, but there is a building we call it right now, the pavilion and cafe,” said Lizzie Woods, senior vice president of planning and development at DRWC.

A rendering of the mass timber building planned for the Penn’s Landing park.

“It’ll be a net zero carbon building … [and it evokes] the natural systems that we know and love along the waterfront and that warm and welcoming spirit that we want the whole park to have,” Woods said at a meeting of the Center City District on Thursday.

Woods said that some of the features planned for the park are influenced by Center City District’s success at Dilworth Park at City Hall, which offers a water feature in the summer and an ice skating rink in the winter.

But when the new Penn’s Landing park is completed, it will be far larger and offer more unplanned space.

“You see those beautiful gardens there, too, with little nooks for gathering and community programming,” Woods said.

“Those nooks actually came out of a lot of our community engagement process where people were looking for spaces that were not the giant amphitheater for programming, but smaller ones that community groups could use and talk with,” Woods said.

The park’s completion is still many years in the future. Next year, in addition to PennDot’s continuing progress on the cap, a new bridge will go up over South Street as part of this project.

It will be built in a parking lot this spring, and then Columbus Boulevard will be closed for one night and it will be swung into place with plans for opening it at the end of next year.

A rendering of the new South Street bridge, which is set to open a year from now.

Over the seven years of the project, PennDot has been doing most of the heavy lifting — spending a year and a half relocating utilities alone— and that will continue to be the case for the near term.

Project costs have shot up since it was originally proposed in 2017, as the first sustained bout of inflation in a generation took hold. Construction costs have soared.

Original cost estimates for Penndot’s portion of the project were $229 million, which increased to $329 million two years ago at the groundbreaking. DRWC’s portion of the project has so far gone up less, and is estimated at $130 million including $20 million for the Delaware River trail.

Planners and political leaders see the project as transformative and project that it will boost investment and valuation along the Delaware Riverfront by at least three times the cost.

“The opportunity of Penn’s Landing is really the proof of a concept that redevelopment of the waterfront, which is an old idea, can be done in such a way that puts the public and the civic resource of the waterfront at the forefront,” Woods said.

“Then that yields the opportunity for high-quality private investment rather than relying on those private areas to set the tone,” Woods said.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the total cost of the project.

December 5, 2025
Northeast Philly’s Franklin Mills mall is for sale

Northeast Philadelphia’s Franklin Mall — better known by its original name, Franklin Mills — is for sale after years of plummeting valuation, occupancy, and visitor numbers.

A listing on the website of real estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) includes possible uses a new owner can consider, including industrial and office development. The parcels including Sam’s Club and Walmart are not included in the sale.

“Franklin Mall presents the opportunity to acquire meaningful control of more than 137 acres … in a densely populated location that may support additional densification and redevelopment,” the listing reads.

The move comes amid a wave of mall sales and redevelopments in the region, with demolition and residential construction a common fate for many struggling shopping centers.

Over 68% of Franklin Mall is occupied, which could be an incentive for continued retail operations. But sales and visitor numbers have been falling for years, and JLL reports the average existing lease lasts for only another 1.7 years.

If a new use is sought, the mile-long, one-story structure would be difficult to repurpose.

“I think it’s unlikely to be a shopping mall” again, said Jerry Roller, founder of the design firm JKRP and a longtime architect in Philadelphia. “What could it be? Obviously, residential. It might be a warehouse. It’s essentially a large vacant piece of land. It was fairly inexpensive when it was built, so it’s not hard to demolish.”

The hundred acres of land that Franklin Mills sits on at the edge of Far Northeast Philadelphia is zoned for auto-oriented commercial use.

JLL’s listing advertises the site’s suitability for industrial redevelopment.

“The property’s infill location and highway access make it a strong candidate for redevelopment into a modern industrial facility,” the listing reads. The zoning “could provide a basis for an investor to pursue the development of up to 1.4 million square feet of new warehouse space.”

The residential redevelopment opportunities for the site could be aided by a promised 20-year property tax abatement for the conversion or demolition of outmoded commercial buildings into housing, which Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration promises next year following enabling legislation from Harrisburg.

But the existing zoning would not allow that, so a residential project would need to win the permission of the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment or have the land-use rules changed legislatively by Councilmember Brian O’Neill.

The mile-long Franklin Mills mall drew Christmas-size crowds at its opening in May of 1989.

Tribulations of a Northeast Philly icon

The 36-year-old, 1.8-million-square-foot facility at Knights and Woodhaven Roads is the second largest mall in the Philadelphia area after King of Prussia. But while its larger cousin remains a dominant retail force, Franklin Mall has been struggling for years.

The mall opened in 1989 to great fanfare as the largest outlet mall ever, with an iconic zigzag-shaped concourse that stretched for 1.2 miles.

In its 1990s heyday, it attracted 20 million visitors annually. The latest numbers, provided by JLL, are 5.6 million visitors a year.

In 2007, in retrospect near the end of Franklin Mills’ golden era, the property and the rest of the Mills Corp. was taken over by Simon Property Group, the largest mall owner in the country. The new ownership group rehabbed the property in 2014, although there were already signs Simon was distancing itself by moving Franklin Mills (renamed Philadelphia Mills) into a different balance sheet category than its core properties.

Simon’s loan on the property had been intermittently distressed since 2012. An April 2024 report from real estate analytics firm Morningstar Credit was headlined “Legacy Philly Mall Back to Special Servicing for the Umpteenth Time.”

Shoppers stroll through the Franklin Mills mall in 2014.

The 2007 loan still had an outstanding balance of almost $250 million when it came to maturity in July 2024. Simon stepped away from the day-to-day operations at that time, with Philadelphia-based OPEX CRE Management appointed as receiver of the distressed property. The name was changed to Franklin Mall because Mills was trademarked by Simon.

Last year Franklin Mall’s appraised value was $76 million, a precipitous decline from its $201 million valuation in 2012 and $370 million in 2007. According to Morningstar Credit, a new appraisal is likely in the next month.

Full financials haven’t been publicly updated since last year, but at that time, the cash flow for the property was $9.5 million, the lowest since Simon took over in 2007. That’s down from 2019, when cash flow was $17.5 million, according to Morningstar, and from $11 million in 2022.

According to Morningstar, the latest reports from the special servicer for the property, Greystone Servicing Co., say cash flow is even lower this year and occupancy has fallen to 65.4%.

Possible reuses for Franklin Mills

Franklin Mall’s for-sale status comes as some old-school regional shopping destinations are declining.

While some of its counterparts like King of Prussia and the Cherry Hill Mall are still thriving, there has been a wave of sales and redevelopments of area malls as the nature of retail evolves.

Some ailing malls have been purchased on the cheap, allowing their new owners to reinvest and refurbish the property in its previous mold.

“In terms of using the buildings that are there, it’s a challenge because they are generally big box retail, and they’ve got a center mall, which is completely out of fashion,” Roller said. “Could somebody, if they had the right tenants, recreate the mall? Turn it inside out, open the thing up?”

“Maybe it’s possible,” Roller said. But “I don’t see a lot of uses for the buildings that are there right now.”

The redevelopment of Exton Square Mall is in legal limbo.

When regional malls are redeveloped, more commonly, the retail options are reduced with much of the old structure demolished. Diverse new uses often take a faded shopping center’s place.

Two weeks ago, the sale of Plymouth Meeting Mall was announced with the new owner planning residential development. The contentious redevelopment of the Exton Square Mall would also see a burst of residential development and expanded healthcare options — if the owner can win a lawsuit against the township.

In New Jersey, the Echelon, Moorestown, and Burlington Center malls have or are going through a variety of demolition and redevelopment options. The commonality is that residential building is a part of all three plans.

At Franklin Mall, redevelopment would likely require demolition of the existing building.

“Ultimately, it may just be a piece of land” for sale, said Roller.

JLL’s listing, however, pitches the property as either redevelopment or continued mall use.

“This offering presents prospective purchasers with the opportunity to acquire a strategically positioned super regional shopping center with significant upside potential and/or redevelopment opportunity,” it reads.

JLL’s managing directors on the sale are John Plower, David Monahan, and Jim Galbally.

December 3, 2025