Philly Live!
Location: Sports Complex, South Philadelphia, PA
Usage: Entertainment/Retail
Size: 350,000 square feet
Developers:
• Comcast-Spectacor
• Cordish Co.
Estimated Cost: $100,000,000
Groundbreaking: Early 2010
Completion: 2011
Photo Courtesy of Comcast-Spectacor and The Cordish Company
Photo Courtesy of Comcast-Spectacor and The Cordish Company
Photo Courtesy of Comcast-Spectacor and The Cordish Company
Photo Courtesy of Comcast-Spectacor and The Cordish Company
A glitzy game plan for developing Spectrum site
A glitzy game plan for developing Spectrum site A plan to bring life to the vast asphalt desert around Philadelphia's stadium complex moved forward yesterday when a Baltimore developer released drawings for a $100 million entertainment center that would provide easier connections among Wachovia Center, Citizens Bank Park, and Lincoln Financial Field.
The glitzy architectural renderings, presented to the city Planning Commission, showed a two-block-long, diagonal street lined with restaurants, bars, and shops. Modeled on such destinations as Boston's Quincy Market and Baltimore's Power Plant Live!, the partly enclosed street linking the sports venues would displace the Spectrum, which is scheduled for demolition early next year.
The project, called Philly Live!, is being developed jointly by Comcast-Spectacor and the Cordish Co., which created a similar entertainment district around a former power station at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Although they announced their partnership more than 18 months ago, yesterday was the first time they have gone public with a detailed site plan and renderings.
Gary A. Block, the Cordish vice president overseeing the project, said the company hoped to start construction of the 350,000-square-foot entertainment center by this time next summer. But that schedule is tied to the Spectrum's demolition, which is expected to begin in early 2010.
The project Cordish presented yesterday was just the first phase of what could be a much more expansive entertainment district, Block said. Cordish is also trying to snare a "boutique hotel" for a spot on Pattison Avenue near the ballpark.
The Planning Commission did not vote yesterday on the project. According to Block, the design fully meets the city's zoning requirements. But city planner William Kramer said some legislation may yet be required before construction can start.
Although commission members enthusiastically praised the idea of filling in the asphalt landscape south of Pattison Avenue, several also raised concerns about Cordish's site plan. Philly Live! will be located more than a block from the Broad Street subway entrance, and a huge empty zone of parking will continue to separate the complex from transit and Philadelphia's central boulevard.
"It's an island we're designing," Block conceded.
Nevertheless, the other commission members nodded in assent when Natalia Olson de Savyckj gushed, "I love this project."
The lack of a transit connection is partly a result of the way the stadium district has evolved. The former Veterans Stadium was designed to anchor the corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue. But the new Citizens Bank ballpark and Lincoln Financial Field football stadium were built farther away, and they are now a three-block hike from the subway.
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