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Originally Posted by Londonee
I agree with everything you said. I will, however, defend Market East a bit. The mall...is OK. AMC is great, Primark is great, Round One if you have kids is fine. H&M if you have kids is great. East Market is arguably the best development in the city in like 30 years - the pedestrian strip w/ Wayward, Mulherins, Iron Hill is a world class. The convention center building w/ Hard Rock is stunning and always packed + Reading Terminal + LIT/Five Below HQ...
Are there issues and Disneyholes? Sure. But a lot of people unreasonably make it sound like it's a zombie apocalypse down there and it's not the case or productive.
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I wouldn't call the convention center "stunning." It's nice inside and outside architecturally but there's always 20 homeless people camped out under the overpasses. Yes there's been a lot of good stuff happen, mostly all East Market by National Realty but they've moved on to southern Northern Liberties. No one is coming to invest in Market East, especially not 1.5 billion. It's not always a zombie zone but it often is. Go to 10th and Market at 11:00 PM on Tuesday in February...it's a zombie zone. Every bus stop is someone sleeping, covered it litter and piss while scared tourists try and make it back to the Marriott.
Now imagine the 76ers just played a home game and 20,000 people just let out onto the street. Some will walk to their car, some will walk to Iron Hill, some will go to Chinatown to do karaoke, some will go right to Jefferson station, some will walk to the El. Even if it's only 5000 people that do that, it's still 5000 more people than it would have been there otherwise. Foot traffic will improve the area.
You also named the Lit store as a plus? Yes, the building is stunning but it's a dumpy Ross. That's the whole point, Market East is a dumpy but should be nice. In Boston, NYC, SF or Chicago a building that beautiful would be a high end retail, office or apartments.
I agree the Fashion District is fine. The inside is nice but it's half full. The 76ers cutting the rental space in half while adding more foot traffic is exactly what it needs to survive. 76ers games and concerts will bring so many more people to the Nike Store, Foot Locker, the food court etc.
And Redddog is right, the 76ers are the catalyst. This area will remain the same or worse for the next 20 years otherwise.