PHILADELPHIA | 76 Place | GENERAL DISCUSSION

[Raja]

Originally Posted by Skintreesnail

I don't know that it really was so prime until more recently though. If you look at the last few development rundowns and consider all the lowrise and renovations in addition it kind of makes sense. Maybe market east has been prime for a while but not as prime as all the other areas in center city. And it did have enough activity to sustain itself, in its mediocre state up until now. If you look at the fact that there's not that much left in center city to easily develop, just seems like the focus will now be on market east.

I'll just add when I first moved here in 05 Philadelphia was really just begging to hit its stride. There really wasn't much going on, no Schuylkill river trail, no comcast centers, run down mansions turned rentals lining pine and spruce, tons of empty lots on and around market, no penn park, no development at all around 30th and post office, no convention center expansion, kimel center just opened, liberty bell was in a shack, northern liberties was a wasteland, you didn't go south of south. I mean there was just so much to do.

This is good context. Sometimes it's easy to forget just how much progress there has been. I came to Philadelphia in '07, and recall Market East being grungy but still relatively active then. I suppose what makes it stand it out is that while numerous parts of the city have markedly improved over the past decade, Market East has declined. In fact, it's probably the only pocket of Center City that has declined over that period except perhaps for South Street, but even South Street has improved again the past couple years.