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Center City District (CCD) has retained a group of local artists to create a major display of new banners, currently being installed across Center City, to coincide with the partial reopening of businesses and the gradual return of workers and visitors to the downtown.
At the start of 2020, before the pandemic upended daily life and shook every aspect of the city’s economy, Philadelphia was in its 11th straight year of growth. Now, as vaccination rates rise and vitality is steadily returning to the downtown and neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia, the CCD and CPDC are releasing a pair of reports which look at the past year’s challenges and track multiple indicators of recovery.
Center City’s commercial core is experiencing a sustained process of recovery, with new businesses opening and existing retailers moving to new, often larger locations, according to the just-released CCD/CPDC Center City Retail Update. In the first quarter of 2022, taxable retail sales in the core of Center City reached 94% of 2019 levels and restaurant sales reached 74% of 2019 levels.
Center City continued its steady process of recovery in June and during the first three weeks of July with pedestrian volumes in July reaching 92% of 2019 levels. During the month of June, the combined number of residents, workers and visitors were up 2% from the previous month.
The total number of workers, residents and visitors in Center City continued to rise in October 2023 to 82% of October 2019 levels, with the largest increases among workers and residents. Overall, the upward trend in pedestrian volumes for the last three and a half years is showing no signs of having reached any plateau.
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.