since the 1960s, according to its executive director, John Chin. The neighborhood is home to about 5,000 people, about half of whom live in federally subsidized apartments developed by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. The arena developers have made the project website available in Simplified Chinese characters, along with English, and Adelman said they had been meeting with people in Chinatown. A united Chinatown, he said, could more likely ensure that, if the arena is built, community members could extract useful concessions from the developers so the neighborhood is more likely to grow and prosper rather than wither. Oh urged business owners and residents to pick leaders and spokespeople and to invite arena proponents to make a more detailed pitch. The site described in the announcement July 21 would grow from a proposed 118,000 square feet, including the Market Street property, which Fashion District Philadelphia owner Macerich has agreed should be redeveloped for the project, to about 175,000 square feet by adding the street and the bus property.Ĭity Councilmember At-Large David Oh, a Republican, told the group that he shared initial skepticism as to whether an arena would benefit the neighborhood, or whether the owners might use the plan to press their current landlord, Comcast, into making concessions to keep the team as a tenant at its South Philadelphia arena, the Wells Fargo Center. If the group gets city approval, it expects to build the $1.3 billion arena between 20. The Sixers development group hopes to take over the one-way block of Filbert Street between the Fashion District Philadelphia mall and the bus station. They are starting to consider alternative sites,” said Anuj Gupta, chief of staff for U.S. “They informed me their lease would be going to end in the next few years. Greyhound and the station property’s New York owner, Hany Arnut’s Criterion Holdings LLC, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment. Greyhound has lately asked for help from public officials in relocating to make way for the next user.
He declined to provide more details about the arrangement, citing a nondisclosure agreement. “We have that under contract,” confirmed David Adelman, the Philadelphia developer working with Sixers managing partners Josh Harris and David Blitzer to build a new arena. Backers of the Philadelphia 76ers arena in Center City say they are now prepared to increase the size of the proposed site, from its original location in the 1000 block of Market Street across adjacent Filbert Street onto the current Greyhound bus terminal property, which the arena would replace.