Financing deal in place for redevelopment of Philly’s Gallery Mall

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 Mayor Michael Nutter signs the tax-increment financing deal to pave the way for redevelopment of the former Gallery Mall. The new mall is expected to generate 1,000 jobs when it's finished in two to three years. (Tom MacDonald/WHYY)

Mayor Michael Nutter signs the tax-increment financing deal to pave the way for redevelopment of the former Gallery Mall. The new mall is expected to generate 1,000 jobs when it's finished in two to three years. (Tom MacDonald/WHYY)

A financing deal that paves the way for redevelopment of the Gallery Mall in Philadelphia has been signed into law. 

Approval of the tax-increment financing is important to the city’s future, said Councilman Mark Squilla Thursday.

“It will allow PREIT and Macerich to renovate the gallery property.  It will activate East Market Street to connect Center City with our historic district,” he said.

The $55 million in tax-increment financing is key to the more than $300 million project, said Joe Coradino of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust or PREIT.

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“This is going to be a project that we believe will transform the retail environment in Philadelphia, which we believe is the missing link,” he said.

Mayor Michael Nutter said the deal for the new shopping facility “is really, honestly a once in a generation investment in the city of Philadelphia.

“They take time, they take skill, and every now and then, you get lucky, but that comes as the result of a lot of hard work,” Nutter said.

The facility, to be redubbed the Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia at Market EastGallery, is expected to generate 1,000 jobs once the work is complete and hundreds of construction jobs while the work is under way. 

The city also will save considerably on maintenance work it was supposed to do under a prior agreement with the developers, officials said.

 

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