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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 District SIPS is back, and it’s not just bars and restaurants that benefit.
This new CCD/CPDC report examines the current state of the downtown restaurant and retail sectors. Using pedestrian, transit and parking occupancy counts and detailed visual surveys of almost 2,000 retail premises, conducted by CCD staff, the report provides a close-up look at business conditions, supplemented with information from the commercial office sector, employment trends, housing market data and ecommerce trends.
Come one, come all, July 20-24, to a summertime staple – the county fair, right at Dilworth Park at City Hall!
Jobs are back, salaries are rising, Center City’s population continues growing, conventions, tourism and retail are all rebounding, and pedestrian vitality is almost fully restored in many portions of the downtown. Office vacancy, however, is rising, challenged by a partial return to office and reinforced by a wage tax that encourages suburban residents to remain remote.
CCDF is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $325,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation to enable the first phase of activation for Pulse, a site-specific public art created for Dilworth Park by internationally recognized sculptor Janet Echelman.
CCD, with support from Rittenhouse Row and the City of Philadelphia, plans to transform one of Philadelphia’s most popular shopping and dining destinations, 18th Street from Locust to Chestnut and Walnut Street from 15th to 19th, by temporarily closing streets to vehicular traffic.
The 75-page State of Center City, 2017 report has been released, utilizing the latest research, original reporting and analysis, plus charts and photos to present a downtown that has progressed a long way, but presents a few lingering challenges.