Retail

The pandemic has dramatically highlighted the interdependence of the diverse components of the Center City economy. Downtown offices drive demand for retail and restaurants and attract business travelers. Colleges and universities create demand for apartments, retail and restaurants, and supply graduates who replenish the workforce. Arts and cultural institutions draw regional visitors and tourists, and convention attendees book hotels and restaurants. Remove any of these interconnected components and vitality is challenged, while revenues that support citywide services are curtailed.

State of Center City 2021: Restoring, Returning, Reanimating, is a comprehensive overview of marketplace conditions in Philadelphia at the end of 2020. It provides detailed profiles of the diverse employment sectors that comprise the downtown economy, highlighting strengths and challenges as we entered 2021. It includes information on housing and transportation trends and serves as a report on CCD operations and their impact in the last year.

With the installation of 14 cameras that measure pedestrian volumes 24 hours a day, the CCD now provides retailers, brokers, and developers with detailed counts and analyses of hourly trends.