Take Us to the River

by Morris Bracy

Hosting last week's fifth annual Developers Breakfast and Neighborhood Tour, Mayor Street continued his efforts to draw attention — and dollars — to areas of the city that aren't commonly viewed as potential sites for growth.

"Public housing used to bring our neighborhoods down," Street said to kick off the event, which was sponsored by the Empowerment Zone and Renewal Community and the Office of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation. "Public housing is now lifting neighborhoods up."

With that strategy driving his Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, the "Rivers, Roads & Rails" tour was designed to boost interest in other areas of the city, particularly Philadelphia's waterfront areas.

Gerard H. Sweeney, CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust and chairman of the Schuylkill River Development Corporation, says that Philly is already a leg up on other cities when it comes to waterfront development since the most important ingredient, having a waterfront, is already taken care of.

"All we need to do," he noted, "is simply recognize [that]."

Sweeney encouraged prospective developers and investors to see the potential in commercial and residential enterprise at the old Navy Yard and along Penn's Landing. He gave special focus to the often ignored banks of the Schuylkill.

"What we're looking to do with both the Delaware and the Schuylkill will take a generation," he said, "but the benefits will last for many generations to come."

Guests then boarded tour buses that cruised South, Southwest, West and North Philadelphia.

As one bus wound through University City, riders were encouraged to admire the Italian architecture of abandoned row homes. The tour continued across the South Street bridge, down Broad, onto Washington Avenue and into Grays Ferry, Forgotten Bottom and Eastwick. Developers were challenged to look past the junk yards and abandoned factories in these areas along the Schuylkill to see the space for its potential. The empty structure that once housed US Gypsum, now contaminated and in need of remediation, was painted by guides as a potential environmental education center or a site for some light industrial enterprise.

Angelo Cooper, a potential developer from a Baltimore realty company, says that the dash for investors is not unique to Philly.

"The same thing is taking place across the country," Cooper said, referring to a move toward bringing new commerce into urban markets. But, he cautioned, "A lot of the minorities are pushed out and can't move back into the city because the property value has increased tremendously."