THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER CITY DISTRICT AND CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
SUMMER 2024
CENTER CITY DIGEST
The State of Center City Last month, we released the 2024 edition of our annual State of Center City report, which for decades has tracked the many ways that downtown Philadelphia’s social and economic systems have evolved.
are there opportunities for CCD to promote living in Center City Philadelphia in higher cost markets where there is an established pattern migration to Philadelphia?
After a disruptive four years, it may be counterintuitive to frame our new report as anything other than a recovery scorecard. However, I’m inspired by the work of marine biologist and environmental activist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who asks, “What If We Get It Right?”
We have confirmed the correlation between shorter commutes and the likelihood of returning to the office, which means that Center City’s residential core reinforces the office and employment core, with the benefit of the connective tissue of the fourth most walkable city in the U.S. Current and prospective office tenants can follow the leadership of Comcast, Independence Blue Cross, Chubb and the Parker administration and leverage a proximate talent pool for in-office collaboration, community and conviviality.
I wonder if it’s time to stop talking about “recovery” and instead work to conjure the downtown that we want and that our city needs. We can continue to will our cities to resume the patterns of the last decade, or we can learn from unanticipated strengths and exposed vulnerabilities, and build a downtown that is more competitive, connected, livable, equitable, joyful, resilient and inclusive. While we have 84% of the pedestrian volume of 2019, we have a growing residential population—a great many more residents than before the pandemic. Philadelphia has one of the largest downtown residential populations in the country, in part, because we have converted over 40 office buildings to residential over the last 25 years. It’s not apparent how many more office buildings are suitable for future conversion. Philadelphia will need solutions beyond residential conversions to repurpose obsolete office inventory. To support the continued absorption of our expanding downtown housing supply,
CENTER CITY DISTRICT & CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION | CENTERCITYPHILA.ORG
We are closely monitoring trends in the office market with the understanding of the role of downtown office values on the city’s fiscal health and CCD’s assessment revenue. 70% of non-resident workers are back in their offices in Center City on a given day and that number continues to inch upwards. CCD is working to restart an office retention initiative while creating fun experiences for office workers through mainstay programs—such as Center City District Sips—along with new programs such as Center City Sunrise. In the future, our team will seek to better understand other barriers to RTO (“return to office”), including childcare and commuting patterns. The allure of what Atlantic writer Roge Karma calls “the [downtown] experience of being in proximity to a diverse array of people to meet,
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