Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group is its most recent victim. Having been awarded the contract in 1997, Simon failed to meet repeated deadlines and was sent packing late last year.

As the mid-February deadline for narrowing the list to three proposed plans approaches, pressure is building to continue public hearings on use of the land before any of the proposals is accepted or encouraged.

Like Keating and Blatstein, four of the other local-area developers have existing stakes in the neighborhood.

Keating owns the Hyatt Hotel that was built at Penn's Landing when an earlier, now abandoned, plan was under development. His vision calls for a "celebration of fun" with a 250-foot-high Ferris wheel as its centerpiece.

Blatstein has developed a retail and theater complex on the South Philadelphia waterfront. His Penn's Landing plan includes a piazza surrounded by apartment and office buildings.

Other companies' plans have not been unveiled. Among the contenders are: Plymouth Meeting, PA-based Brandywine Realty Trust, which owns many area office buildings along with some piers north of Penn's Landing; Bluebell, PA-based DePaul Group, which developed the Dockside Apartments that just opened south of Penn's Landing; Blue Bell-based Goldenberg Group, which plans a shopping center around the Ikea store set to go up just south of Penn's Landing, and New Jersey-based Dranoff Properties, which is converting the former RCA Victor Nipper building across the river in Camden, NJ, into a luxury apartment building.

Connecting the Camden and Philadelphia waterfronts has long been part of the vision of Penn's Landing. But, Camden's plans have progressed while Philly's has not.

The three additional developers with plans to develop this side of the river are: Huntington Valley, PA-based Wallaby Group Ltd., New York-based Atlantis Development Consortium; and Human Vision Partners of Washington, D.C., in partnership with Chicago-based Mesirow Stein Development Services.

Instant Insights /

GlobeSt.com Update: Nine Developers Vie for Crack at Penn's Landing

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