City Grants TIF Status to $21M North Broad Retail Project

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PHILADELPHIA-The city council approved a Tax Increment Financing district designation for the two-acre site at the corner of Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue that has been cleared by Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and leased to Beech Corp., a local nonprofit community development corporation. In turn, Beech is leasing the parcel to a joint venture between locally based Tower Investments and Felder & Associates for construction, development and operation of a 92,000-sf retail and movie complex.

The project cost, including acquisition, new construction and tenant fit-up, is estimated at $20.9 million. Tower, headed by Bart Blatstein, will fund $13.9 million of the bill and receive public funding from the commonwealth and city for the remainder. The TIF is expected to generate approximately $5 million of the public funding. Plans call for 60,000 sf of ground-floor retail fronting Broad Street with a six-screen movie theater on the second level. Jeff Winn of Vista Equity Ltd, a leasing consultant to Tower, tells GlobeSt.com, "the center will be open in early summer 2006."

TIF uses increases in local tax revenues to spur economic development. Under the state's TIF act, the city and school district of Philadelphia can designate a TIF district for underutilized or blighted parcels. Increased tax revenues generated by redevelopment of the district are then used to repay privately financed construction debt for the project over a 20-year term. Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. is the city's designated agent for administering the TIF program.