What to Know
- Philadelphia’s mayor has revealed the terms of the deal negotiated with the city’s pro basketball team for a new $1.3 billion arena downtown. The agreement reached earlier this month calls for the Philadelphia 76ers to finance the entire project, with no city funding involved.
- The agreement also calls for a $50 million investment in businesses, neighboring communities and the city’s schools to blunt the project’s impact.
- Parker said her administration would hold a series of town halls in the coming months where residents could discuss concerns about the proposal.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and other city officials provided a ‘very detailed’ update to the ongoing effort to bring a new arena for the 76ers to Center City on Wednesday.
Mayor Parker touted the proposed plans as “a historic agreement.”
The agreement would keep the Philadelphia 76ers playing in the city until 2061, Parker said.
Parker promised on Tuesday that she would provide an update to an agreement that would “cross every T and dot every I,” to ensure that the Philadelphia Sixers stay in the City of Brotherly Love.
Wednesday’s event came about a week after Parker made a surprise announcement on social media that an agreement had been reached for the 76 Place plan to bring an arena for the Sixers to Market Street in Center City.
As your Mayor, I’m speaking from my City Hall office with a very important announcement. I am proud to share that I have made my decision, and an agreement has been reached to ensure that our Sixers are staying home.
I wholeheartedly believe this is the right deal for the People… pic.twitter.com/Fnj19mrBOV
— Mayor Cherelle L. Parker (@PhillyMayor) September 18, 2024
The plan to bring 76 Place at Market East — a $1.3 billion arena that would be home to the Philadelphia 76ers — to Center City has had a long-winding and contentious history, with many of those who live closest to the proposed location for the arena vocal in their opposition of the arena.
The 76ers will be financing the $1.3 billion project without any funding coming from the city, Mayor Parker explained during the meeting.
The Sixers will make an average payment of $6 million per year over the course of 30 years, Parker said. This money will go toward different opportunities for local businesses and residents.
Parker has not yet said how this deal was reached, if any concessions were made by the city or organizers to ensure the plan could move forward, or if steps were made to quell the concerns that opponents of the plan have expressed.
But, she said in a statement that she had heard the concerns and was committed to working with the community of the city’s nearby Chinatown neighborhood.
“I wholeheartedly believe this is the right deal for the People of Philadelphia. To the People of Chinatown, please know that I hear you. We have the best Chinatown in the United States, and I am committed to working together to support it. I’ll have a lot more to say in a formal presentation coming soon,” Parker said.
Parker made a point to speak directly to the Chinatown community during Wednesday’s meeting and she promised that none of the existing neighborhood buildings or structures will be demolished.
“The arena is not being built in Chinatown proper,” Parker explained. “It is adjacent to Chinatown and near Chinatown.”
Chinatown leaders said they have invited Mayor Parker to Chinatown several times to discuss this issue, but she has not come to their turf.
The people of Chinatown, who largely oppose this arena, told NBC10 that they were not personally invited to Wednesday’s public meeting so they did not attend.
“It is outlandish that the mayor is unilaterally trying to impose a CBA on a project that lacks even the most basic studies on housing and rent costs, impacts on small businesses, livability, and transit access – issues that will impact the city for years to come, between multiple years of construction and long-term damage to traffic flow and access to emergency healthcare. We are united in opposition to the arena and the rushed, haphazard process surrounding it,” the executive director of Asian Americans United, Vivian Chang, said in a statement. “Mayor Parker continues to refuse any direct meeting with Chinatown residents, and city meetings have been devoid of facts and accountability, serving as an embarrassing example of poor due diligence. We urge City Council to exercise its authority and delay any legislation until we have a process that respects the needs of the city and its residents at least as much as the whims and greed of the billionaires behind this arena scheme.”
The majority of people who showed up at the Convention Center are supporters of the proposed arena. They are part of the 76 development team or union members who could get construction jobs from the project.
The arena does have the support of several groups in Philadelphia including labor unions like IBEW, African American organizations like NAACP, the Black Clergy and the African American Chamber of Commerce.
The groups cite tax revenue and the revitalization of Market Street among their reasons for supporting the project.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Parker explained that this proposed 76 Place will bring unprecedented opportunities to unlock the long-needed revitalization of Market Street.
“This is the best agreement, best deal for our city right now and this is just the beginning of the process,” Parker said.
Part of the revitalization includes $3 million to support SEPTA and PATCO in an effort to get people to take mass transit to the arena for events and $4.1 million for 21 new security cameras around the area.
“We appreciate Mayor Parker and her administration for taking the time to not only thoroughly evaluate our proposal, but also to articulate to the public how 76Place can serve as a much-needed catalyst for the broader revitalization of Market East. The Mayor has a vision for how to restore the economic hub of Center City, and we are eager to take part by delivering an arena that will create thousands of jobs while generating new tax revenues for the city, state, and school district. Moreover, Mayor Parker will leverage our Community Benefits Agreement – the largest in Philadelphia history – to ensure that surrounding neighborhoods positively benefit from the new Market East. There is still a lot of work to be done to make this incredible vision a reality. We look forward to our dialogue with City Council and advancing to the next steps so we can meet our goal of having a new home for our team by 2031,” 76 Place Chairman David Adelman said in a statement to NBC10.
What happens next
Even with Mayor Cherelle Parker’s approval, the proposed 76ers arena in Center City is not a done deal.
City Council has the final vote. The legislation package is available for the public to read for the next month before going to the council.
Councilmember Mark Squilla, who represents the district where the arena would be built, told NBC10 that he has not seen the agreement yet.
“Councilmember Squilla has said, if neighborhoods oppose this thing, it’s not gonna happen. And so the fact that City Hall is continuing to advance this reckless timeline, it’s deeply concerning, not just for our community, but for how things should work in Philly,” Mohan Seshadri, of the Save Chinatown Coalition said.
To read the proposed legislation, click here.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Mayor Parker told the city of Philadelphia that she is planning to host town halls in every single neighborhood to discuss the plans and how they’ll impact every single resident.
76 DevCo proposal
Developer 76 DevCo first proposed this project more than two years ago in July of 2022.
They said that they want to build the arena in part of the Fashion District Mall from 10th to 11th on Market Street.
The building would have a 25-floor apartment building complex above it with a fifth of the units being used for affordable housing.
76 DevCo promised to build this at no cost to taxpayers by bringing in $1.55 billion through private money.
The group said it would create more than 9,100 construction jobs for Philadelphia residents and generate more than $1.5 billion in tax revenue over the next 30 years.
The 76 DevCo also promised to give a collective $50 million to surrounding neighborhoods and communities of color including $2 million to Black-owned businesses.
The Save Chinatown Coalition said that the studies that the city of Philadelphia has done are inadequate.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as new information becomes available.
