No more apartment tower in Sixers arena plans, but another could rise not far away

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An apartment tower that was once part of the plans for the 76ers arena development in Center City is no longer on the drawing board.

Councilmember Mark Squilla, who controls when the legislation will be introduced in City Council, said the apartment tower was removed because it really didn’t benefit the Chinatown community.

“Some of the folks in Chinatown felt that that was an insult,” he said. “That nobody who would live in Chinatown would actually live in that facility.”

Squilla said a deal to build an alternative low- to moderate-income apartment building in Chinatown is being discussed at a location already owned by the city: the 6th District police station at 11th and Winter streets.

“That is the location that is working on trying to transfer that over to the community to then build it,” he said.

That property is owned by the city and developer Macerich, who could be called in to assist with gap funding to make the apartment project at the former station a reality. Work that had been done at the station was consolidated into the Philadelphia Police Department headquarters. That move made the station near Vine Street available for development as well as the old “roundhouse” building that previously served as police headquarters.

Macerich took complete control of the Fashion District when co-developer PREIT declared bankruptcy. The property was originally the Gallery at Market East when it was developed. However, it has not been a great success since a significant overhaul opened in September 2019 to great fanfare.

The Sixers hope to build their arena on a part of the property to revive the Market East area, where they can be the primary tenant, collecting a percentage of everything from ticket sales to concessions.

The project has seen major pushback from neighbors, including the Chinatown community, who have previously fought off the development of a baseball stadium and a casino.

But this time, the mayor is behind the development, making it much more difficult for opponents to defeat the project.