Why the Navy Yard Might Soon Be Philly’s Hottest Neighborhood

The lit buildings on this diorama of the Navy Yard show the new buildings that have been added to the site over the last 25 years and those yet to come. In the foreground at right is the Waterfront District, which will contain office and mixed-use residential buildings; behind it to its right, the Greenway District will contain life sciences manufacturing space. The completed Corporate Center is at the rear, and new buildings to be added in the historic core are located below that area. / Photographs by Sandy Smith

If you want one number that sums up all the reasons why Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation officials were feeling celebratory on the 25th anniversary of its taking over the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard (PNSY), it’s this one: 15,000.

That’s the number of people working at the Navy Yard now. And it represents 5,000 more people than worked at the PNSY when the Navy moved out in 1996.

But even as PIDC brass, city officials and executives at Ensemble Mosaic, the Navy Yard’s master developer, celebrated 25 years of success on Thursday, March 20th, they also had an eye firmly on the development’s next 25 years.

By then, the rest of the Navy Yard makeover should be complete. And that’s “complete” as in “a place where you can live, work and play without having to leave it.”

Here’s another number: 8,000. That’s the number of people the city’s quasi-public commercial/industrial land redevelopment corporation expects to see living in the 4,000-odd residential units that will be added over the next 20 years, according to Kate McNamara, PIDC’s executive vice president for the Navy Yard.

This map from the Navy Yard’s 2022 master plan update shows the development’s various districts. / Map prepared by James Cormer Field Operations for Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation

Work on the Navy Yard’s first residential development is nearly complete. The first residents are slated to move into the 614-unit, two-building AVE Navy Yard complex this summer. “Our first goal is to get Chapel Block, our residential project, open, operating and stabilized,” says Leslie Smallwood-Lewis, chief operating officer of Philadelphia-based Mosaic Development Partners, whose joint venture with Long Beach, California-based Ensemble was established in 2020.

The Chapel Block buildings, which will contain a mix of market-rate and affordable apartments along with flexible-stay and traditional hotel rooms, should contain about 1,000 new residents when fully leased. Add the 8,000 planned residents to this figure and the Navy Yard will become the city’s biggest new neighborhood.

In addition to those 8,000 additional residents in the planned Waterfront District, the next stage of the Navy Yard’s development will double the number of jobs to 30,000. Most of these will be located in the Greenway District, which is set to contain nearly 1.3 million more square feet of life science manufacturing space and parking for 2,580 cars, but there will also be additional jobs in the Waterfront District, the Navy Yard’s historic core and the retail and commercial spaces intended to meet the needs of all those new residents.

Smallwood-Lewis says that building some of that resident-serving space is the next priority. The first phase of Waterfront District construction will have 45,000 square feet of retail space, she says, “and we want to make sure that we have amenities for the new residents” in place to greet them. The plan is to fill the space with food and beverage establishments and businesses that fill residents’ everyday needs, such as drugstores, dry cleaners and convenience grocers.  As the neighborhood fills and adds residents, more retail space will be added along with businesses such as a supermarket.

What the riverfront promenade in the Waterfront District should look like / Rendering by James Cormer Field Operations for PIDC

As befits a neighborhood that sits right next to a river — or two; the Navy moved its first shipyard to League Island in the early 1800s because it sits where the Schuylkill and Delaware meet — the Waterfront District will have a landscaped multipurpose path along its riverside edge. At one end, it will connect to a promenade along the historic core’s waterfront, and at the other, it will lead to a wilderness buffer that will provide a green border between the Navy Yard and the port to its east.

Landscaped streets running through the neighborhood’s middle towards the river will provide greenery, public meeting places and stormwater management; one of them will feature a canal separating its pedestrian and automobile spaces. The buffer and riverside path will also control stormwater runoff.

However, there’s also much to remark on about the progress made so far.

Some of the Naval Shipyard’s old industrial buildings have been turned into mixed-use spaces for the general public. Shop 542, whose interior promenade appears above, contains a food court with a wide range of vendors and cuisines.

The work to date has transformed many of the Navy Yard’s old industrial buildings into modern office and mixed-use space. (One of those that can’t be transformed, where 12th Street ends at Kitty Hawk Avenue, will be demolished in order to extend 12th Street to the river through the center of another existing building.)

The Philadelphia Shipyard’s future has also been assured thanks to South Korean conglomerate Hanwha, which bought it in December. Company representatives also attended the kickoff event.

And PIDC has also set and met some ambitious goals for diversity and inclusion in the development process. Mosaic Development Partners secured more than one-third of the $268 million needed to build Chapel Block from a Black woman-led investment firm, for instance, and Mosaic’s presence as partner in the joint venture is another milestone.

PIDC’s commitment to equitable development of the Navy Yard landed it a spot on this year’s Fast Company list of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies,” where it placed seventh in the economic development category.

That diversity also extends to the types of businesses located at the Navy Yard. While life sciences may occupy the bulk of the complex’s commercial real estate, 74 percent of the companies now housed at the Navy Yard are small businesses with 20 or fewer employees. Several of these firms occupy the former homes of Naval Shipyard brass along Broad Street.

In addition, 40 percent of Navy Yard workers have a high school degree or GED, while another 40 percent have college or advanced degrees, according to Kate McNamara, executive vice president for the Navy Yard at PIDC, who called this “a unique split of talent” at the kickoff event.

PIDC plans a year-long series of events marking Navy Yard milestones and celebrating those who now work there. More information about the events, the Navy Yard and the next phases of development are available on the Navy Yard website.