Research & Reports

Sustained by a diversified retail customer base that includes the third largest downtown population in the U.S., workers, tourists, and regional visitors, Center City Philadelphia is on pace for the second consecutive year of positive net openings, according to the new Center City District/Central Philadelphia Development Corporation Center City Retail, November 2022.

Does Philadelphia have what it takes to recover? This Center City District/Central Philadelphia Development Corporation report examines Philadelphia’s signs of recovery, and remaining challenges, after two years of profound disruption.

This report compares Philadelphia to five other urban areas in United States. It documents how Philadelphia lags in firms that sell services nationally and globally, but suggests that if we replicate the success achieved by others, we will grow more family-sustaining jobs and a prosperous network of small, local businesses.

Nearly two years after Philadelphia offices were ordered to close as the first COVID-19 cases were detected, and more than a year after vaccinations got underway, Center City and University City companies are continuing to adapt and remain flexible, while strongly valuing the importance of in-office work and a downtown presence, according to a CCD survey. CCD distributed a survey to employers to gauge their current stance on in-office and remote work, their plans for the first quarter of 2022, and factors they were weighing in making workplace decisions.

Recovery is progressing by nearly all measures: employment, hotel occupancy, retail and restaurant sales, transit ridership, pedestrian volumes and city tax collections are all up. Job recovery is slow but steady and most significantly, Philadelphia’s unemployment rate fell in October, to the lowest point since 1990.

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