Working every day to enhance the vitality of Center City.

Center City District has helped transform downtown Philadelphia with a simple but ambitious mission to make the downtown clean, safe and attractive for people to work, live and enjoy.

Philly wants you to support our restaurants! You can make a difference by buying yourself dinner. That’s right. Many of your favorite restaurants really need your support and a great way to show your love is by ordering takeout. You’re not only putting food on your table, you’re helping restaurant workers put food on theirs. So skip the dishes and do your part.

Enjoy sunshine and socially distanced seating at CCD managed parks- Dilworth Park, Sister Cities Park and Cret Park. Fountains have returned on low water settings. Check back for more updates soon.

This Center City District and Central Philadelphia Development Corporation monthly report on the Philadelphia economy and the vitality of Center City shows that the employment rebound in the summer and fall began to stall in November. By contrast, housing markets remain strong and restaurants are finding multiple ways to sustain their business. Once a well-organized vaccination program begins nationally with sufficient supply and major employers begin to reopen their offices, signs should point to a more robust recovery by spring 2021.

Center City District is committed to providing a safe and welcoming public space in Dilworth Park in accordance with all applicable CDC, Commonwealth and City health safety guidelines for public parks.

Center City is ready when you are: Businesses throughout the downtown are following CDC and local guidelines to reopen with care. There are a range of resources that can help you navigate these challenging times while enjoying the unique amenities our downtown offers.

Center City Philadelphia is the largest employment node in the nation’s eighth most populous metro area. While the pandemic seriously affected retail sales nationally in 2020, this sector has proved resilient in Philadelphia. Retailers have gradually reopened, relying on new safety protocols to sustain recovery. Many restaurants are providing protected and heated outdoor seating and relying on take-out through the cold winter months.

Despite extraordinary challenges, Center City restaurants and retail are showing remarkable resilience. Seventy percent of restaurants in Midtown Village and Rittenhouse Row are serving outdoors, under weather-protected cover. Boarded up storefronts downtown have dramatically declined from almost 300 in the summer to just 27, only 1.6% of all premises in the District. New businesses are opening, behind plywood barriers some remain open for customers, while in others work is underway for new store openings.

The steady, incremental lifting of pandemic-related restrictions has enabled retail, restaurant and service businesses gradually to reopen, drawing an increasing number of pedestrians back to Center City’s sidewalks and helping to restore thousands of jobs. This new report from CCD/CPDC tracks the rebound over the last three months.

Conditions prior to the current crisis. Philadelphia will rebound; underlying fundamentals remain strong. When recovery comes, we have strengths to build on, challenges to address.

This CCD, CPDC report suggests that Philadelphia should increase its commitment to quality of life investments and resume its prior commitments to tax reduction, in order to retain and attract residents and businesses and spur widespread and inclusive private-sector job growth.

In October, CPDC surveyed its members and Board members of the CCD to determine what percent of their employees were currently working in the office downtown, the expected timetable for the majority to return, the most important factors that needed to be addressed to facilitate a return to the office, and the biggest advantages of a safe return.

This special edition of the CCD and CPDC quarterly newsletter documents this extraordinary year in photos and features CCD President, Paul R. Levy's letter, Ready to Rebound in 2021.

This CCD, CPDC report examines business density and the disparities between the number of Black-owned and white-owned businesses in Philadelphia and compares them to four other East Coast cities.

After decades of job loss, Philadelphia has enjoyed nine straight years of job growth that accelerated in 2014. Despite the recent upturn however, the city has rebounded more slowly than most peer cities.

The Center City District Foundation is pleased to announce the successful launch of a new initiative, Plant Center City, which has the goal of planting 200 new trees in the central business district during the next two years.

State of Center City 2020 is a comprehensive overview of market conditions downtown at the end of 2019, before the impact of the current crisis.

CCD, Project Home and Philadelphia Police have partnered to create combined outreach teams that help people living on the streets connect with services and shelter.

Center City District (CCD) is launching an advertising campaign across multiple media platforms to promote Philadelphia’s restaurants during the coldest winter months from January through March. The new campaign encourages the public to patronize restaurants through takeout orders, because not all restaurants have been able to install heated outdoor dining areas and the return to indoor dining will probably be gradual when it begins.

Dilworth Park remains a safe, outdoor destination for Philadelphians throughout the rest of the winter season. The Rothman Orthopaedics Ice Rink, the Rothman Orthopaedics Cabin and the Wintergarden on the Greenfield Lawn can be enjoyed through February 28, featuring a variety of free activities. Increased health and safety protocols, like mandatory mask wearing and social distancing, continue in accord with State, City and CDC guidelines.

The steady, incremental lifting of pandemic-related restrictions has enabled retail, restaurant and service businesses gradually to reopen, drawing an increasing number of pedestrians back to Center City’s sidewalks and helping to restore thousands of jobs. This new report from CCD/CPDC tracks the rebound over the last three months.