Navy Yard adds companies, jobs to its roster

For the last 15 years, it seems that the Philadelphia Navy Yard has marked one milestone after another and last year was no different.

The Navy Yard added 12 new businesses and more than 500 new employees to its roster. While that alone is significant, taken on a cumulative basis, the Navy Yard now has 152 companies and 12,000 people working from it, according to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.

When it ceased operations in the fall of 1995, about 4,000 workers lost their jobs. They were daunting losses in a city that was struggling at the time and seemed to have lost its footing and ability to hold on to companies, jobs, and even people who wanted to live here.

If these recent numbers out of the Navy Yard mean anything, time – along with a deliberate, patient strategy – has helped heal that wound. Though the jobs require different skill sets than the ones used when the site was a shipyard, the employment losses that were felt as a result of the closure have been more than made up.

This year is expected to be another positive one for the Navy Yard as more jobs, investment and companies make announcements to move in and continue to solidify its position as an official office submarket of Philadelphia. It has 7.5 million square feet of office, industrial and manufacturing space.

Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners have spent $550 million developing 1.58 million square feet of space at the site. The development team finished building 201 Rouse Blvd., a four-story, 80,050-square-foot building for Franklin Square Capital Partners; built another 45,000-square-foot building for WuXi AppTec, Inc., an existing tenant; broke ground on 1200 Intrepid Ave., a 91,901-square-foot office building; and opened the Central Green.

Among other highlights from last year include Axalta Coating Systems announcing it is locating operations in new 175,000-square-foot building and Adaptimmune Therapeutics moving its headquarters into a 47,400 square foot property.

One of the challenges to the Navy Yard is mass transit access and PIDC has temporarily solved this with shuttles, which saw ridership swell to 314,000 rides last year. PIDC continues to explore getting the Broad Street Line extended to the Navy Yard as well as adding additional shuttles.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal