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Report highlights positive growth in Center City Philadelphia
Ayana Jones | The Philadelphia Tribune
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The Center City District has released the “State of Center City, 2015” report, which provides a detailed look at the diverse sectors that make Center City Philadelphia the largest employment center in the region.
The report documents how Center City provides jobs, education, medical, cultural and retail services for residents across the city and the region, while supporting the second largest residential downtown in the United States. According to the report, 293,700 jobs are concentrated in Greater Center City and 52 percent of those jobs are held by Philadelphia residents. An average of 25 percent of employed residents from every neighborhood outside of downtown work in Center City.
CCD President and CEO Paul Levy said while downtown growth is strong in the education, healthcare and hospitality sectors, the district is under performing in the areas of business and professional services and that is impacting the ability to raise rents for office space. Center City’s 40.3 million square feet of office space contain 38.8 percent of all salaried jobs downtown.
“The bottom line is that we have significant competitive advantages in terms of transit accessibility, walkability, compactness, arts and culture and entertainment but we are not commanding a significant rent premium,” Levy said, noting that downtown commercial rents lag in comparison to other cities. “This issue of lack of job growth to us is one of the underlying factors that stands behind of the current school funding crisis.”
Center City is experiencing significant growth in its residential population. Since 2000, the Center City district’s population grew by 16 percent from 157,782 to 183,240 residents. According to the report, the district has one of the highest concentrations of educated workers in the city and the region. Levy says the population boom is being driven by young professionals, millennials — the generation born after 1983 — and empty-nesters.
The CCD released a supplement highlighting the developments underway in the district which notes that $6.7 billion is being invested or is in the pipeline for major development between Spring Garden and South Streets. This accounts for 6,686 residential units, 1,933 hotel rooms, 1,961,600 million square feet of commercial/mixed use development and 2,331,315 square feet of new retail space.
According to the report, Center City’s growing residential population with average household income of more than $100,000 is spurring several large scale retail projects such as the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust’s redevelopment of The Gallery and NREA’s East Market project.