{"id":657177,"date":"2026-03-15T10:25:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657177\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T10:25:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:25:40","slug":"revitalizing-philadelphias-market-east-with-new-retail-murals-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657177\/","title":{"rendered":"Revitalizing Philadelphia\u2019s Market East with new retail, murals and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best way to revive Market East?<\/p>\n

A 20-year tax abatement?\u00a0Narrowing Market Street?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maybe a Las Vegas-style Sphere covered with screens?<\/p>\n

Business and political leaders held a lively discussion this week of some of those options and revealed a few actual improvements that will come to the struggling shopping district over the next few weeks and months.<\/p>\n

A city advisory group<\/a> led by Brandywine Realty Trust CEO Jerry Sweeney has been holding meetings to come up with a redevelopment strategy and policy recommendations for city officials, and is expected to issue a report by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, as Mayor Cherelle Parker briefly mentioned in her budget address<\/a> Thursday, the city and other entities are moving ahead with some short-term initiatives: retail pop-ups in eight vacant spaces on the 900 block of Market Street, outdoor murals at the Fashion District mall and other buildings, refurbished bus shelters and 42 new trees.<\/p>\n

\"\"A rendering shows a planned mural on the former Strawbridge & Clothier building on Market Street in Center City. (Center City District) <\/p>\n

The projects are meant to \u201cshift some momentum\u201d on the corridor and \u201cget things in order\u201d before a surge of visitors hits the city for this year\u2019s FIFA World Cup<\/a>, celebrations of the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary, the MLB All-Star game and other events, said Prema Gupta, CEO of the Center City District organization, which is helping organize the work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a high degree of retail vacancy on the corridor, and we think one of the ways that we can make an immediate impact \u2014 using the summer, frankly, as an excuse to kind of galvanize action \u2014 is incubating some local diverse businesses in those spaces,\u201d she said at a CCD meeting Wednesday.<\/p>\n

CCD said the retail spaces are in buildings owned by the Fashion District, Comcast, and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, owner of the 76ers, which had previously planned to build a new basketball arena<\/a> on Market Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comcast and HBSE have also put off controversial plans to demolish buildings<\/a> on the 1000 block of Market, including the architecturally significant Robinson\u2019s Building, the Philadelphia Business Journal<\/a> reported. The companies had previously proposed using the resulting empty lot for a beer garden and other temporary attractions this summer.<\/p>\n

Filling gaps on the street<\/p>\n

HBSE\u2019s development plan for the arena area had envisioned the company working with Macerich, owner of the Fashion District, to eventually demolish the low-rise strip of shops on the 900 block and build a large new development with retail spaces and hundreds of residential units.<\/p>\n

In January 2025, the Sixers abandoned the arena project in favor of building a new South Philly arena with Comcast, while promising to continue supporting a Market East revival. The two companies subsequently spent $56 million to buy four sets of properties<\/a> on Market between 9th and 11th streets.<\/p>\n

Other than the proposal to demolish some of the properties, which drew criticism over fears of creating another long-term gap on a corridor already studded with parking lots, their intentions for the stretch have remained unclear.<\/p>\n

\"\"A map show the locations of retail popups and public art installations on Market East. (Center City District) <\/p>\n

A new vision for those blocks could be part of the report produced by Sweeney\u2019s group, whose members<\/a> include HBSE\u2019s David Adelman and Comcast and Macerich executives. Redeveloping Market East will likely take years, however, and CCD and the city want to enliven and spruce up the dead zone at its heart in time for this summer\u2019s big tourism season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An installation by Cuban-Salvadoran artist Manuela Gillen<\/a> will go up on the Fashion District\u2019s exterior in the coming weeks, Gupta said. An abstract mural wall will be installed over the frontage on the Robinson\u2019s building and a former Reebok store, according to a rendering in the CCD\u2019s presentation Wednesday. Art will be added to the windows of the shuttered Giant Heirloom Market that occupied the former Strawbridge & Clothier building at 8th and Market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, works by eight local artists will cover about 5,500 square feet of frontage in at least 10 locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that Market East over-indexes on retail vacancy, and I think this will clean things up a little bit in advance of the summer and also show off some of our local creative talent,\u201d Gupta said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The work of eight local artists will be displayed on buildings in Philadelphia\u2019s Market East business corridor. (Center City District)<\/p>\n

She also showed photos of retail spaces on the 900 block that HBSE, Comcast and Macerich have been renovating and whose use they will donate to local creatives and entrepreneurs. The names of the businesses have not been announced, but the photos showed stores selling art, clothing, and handmade pottery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur purpose here really is filling gaps. We\u2019re not necessarily trying to plant our flag in the ground. Candidly, the best-case scenario, some of these retail vacancies are leased up by a more permanent retailer,\u201d Gupta said. \u201cBut while there is vacancy and while there are these opportunities, we\u2019re trying to fill some of those gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The popups will open in May. Through a $1.85 million city grant, CCD has additionally been replacing and planting 42 new street trees, refurbishing four transit head houses and 21 bus shelters, and painting light and banner poles.<\/p>\n

How to create an inviting strip<\/p>\n

The CCD meeting included a panel discussion with Parker\u2019s chief of staff Tiffany Thurman, City Councilmember Mark Squilla, Parkway Corp. CEO Robert Zuritsky and developer Josh Rosenbloom of Morningside Heights, which owns the Steele Building at 11th and Ludlow streets.<\/p>\n

It was not clear from the conversation whether the closed-door meetings Sweeney\u2019s group has been holding have yielded any concrete strategies yet. Squilla, who would have a key role in any legislation related to Market East, repeatedly mentioned the idea of a 20-year tax abatement, as well as two state programs \u2014 Tax Increment Financing<\/a> and Keystone Innovation Zone<\/a> tax credits \u2014 that can be used to spur development in targeted locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those conversations are being had now. It\u2019s kind of hard to see what could work, what wouldn\u2019t work. Is the 20-year abatement better than having a KIZ? We\u2019re not sure yet,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A rendering shows a planned mural on 900 block of Market Street in Center City. (Center City District) <\/p>\n

He also noted that Fashion District owner Macerich has \u201ca lot\u201d of empty space they could sell off or convert into an entertainment, restaurant, or other use.<\/p>\n

Thurman and the other panelists pointed to the ongoing success of the Christmas show in the former Macy\u2019s building, at Market East\u2019s western end near City Hall, and mused about the possibility of creating another attraction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zuritsky joked that the Goldenberg Group, owners of the notorious \u201cDisney hole\u201d site<\/a> at 8th Street, were now planning to build a version of the Las Vegas Sphere there. \u201cSomething that is exciting, that draws people in the evenings and the weekends, would be an amazing thing for that corridor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rosenbloom praised a project in Old City<\/a>, now nearing completion, that is narrowing the east end of Market to expand space for pedestrians and cyclists<\/a>. He suggested that something similar could be done for the rest of the corridor, perhaps initially by blocking off one lane of the road to make room for cafe seating or vendor stalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do we do for East Market as a whole, right now? Move as quickly as possible to get something done,\u201d he said. \u201cThen you let the creativity of people in the private sector, the development world, the arts world, let all those people unleash their creativity on the canvas of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thurman said she and other administration officials have been visiting and checking out downtown revival efforts in other cities, including Denver, where $100 million is being spent on a series of housing and redevelopment<\/a> projects. Such projects aim to make city centers more inviting for residents and workers, not just a destination for restaurantgoers and visitors, she said.<\/p>\n

Denver is \u201creally one of our proof of concepts,\u201d Thurman said. \u201cIt is people spending their money and dwelling there, even beyond those dining experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. What\u2019s the best…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":657178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,648,50786,18422,155368,240108,206778,12778,1448,2830,1311,80,4329,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-657177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-arts","tag-center-city-district","tag-comcast","tag-fashion-district-mall","tag-harris-blitzer-sports-entertainment-hsbe","tag-mark-squilla","tag-market-east","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-politics","tag-real-estate","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116232711683910216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}