Jennifer Lin, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, October 27, 2013, 2:02 AM
PHILADELPHIA In the early days of Philadelphia, the riverfront near Penn Treaty Park was known for its sandy white beaches.
In the early 18th century, it became a hub for shipbuilding. Much later, in 1920, the Philadelphia Electric Co. built a coal-fired power station on in that stretch of the Delaware River.
Today, Beach Street in Fishtown looks like a sad monument to the city’s lost industrial past.
The old power station is gutted & defaced with graffiti, surrounded by acres of empty land used for storing construction equipment.
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After years of time of wrestling over ways to revitalize the area, city planners are hearing fresh suggestions – from Wynn Resorts.
The Las Vegas NV casino operator’s group is one of six vying for the city’s 2nd casino license. A decision on the license is still many many months away & rests with state gaming commissioners, not city officials.
But Wynn Resorts is talking informally to city planners & neighbors about what the company would do to spur additional development if it emerged the winner.
Wynn Philadelphia has a vested interest in the future of the neighborhood: Beach Street would be at its front door.
Alan Greenberger, the city’s deputy mayor of economic development, asserted it would be “odd” to have Wynn’s $925 million investment surrounded by urban wasteland.
“It makes us wonder what’s the attraction of being in this place, if you’re surrounded by highways & undeveloped waterfront,” he asserted in an interview.
Wynn Resorts has an option to buy 60 waterfront acres where North Beach Street bends in to Richmond Street. The site is moreover next to the new I-95 interchange for Girard Avenue.
To improve Beach Street, the company would invest in the streetscape, in addition to lights, road improvements, landscaping, & sidewalks, asserted Terry McKenna, a principal of Keating Consulting, developer of the Wynn project.
“We recognize the street is a mess,” McKenna said. The investment would be “north of $5 million, inching closer to $10 million,” he said.
In addition, Wynn Resorts has decided to alter the orientation of 18 acres of open space from the northern to the southern side of its site, McKenna said.
“That will spur further development on Beach Street,” he said.
The city’s current master plan for the central Delaware River waterfront calls for light industry on this stretch of Beach Street.
McKenna asserted in that if the Wynn project were awarded a license, the area would be better suited for a mix of residential, retail, & office space.
But he asserted the company was not interested in acquiring additional land or spearheading ancillary development.
“It’s not our focus,” McKenna said.
He added in that the Wynn project & PennDot’s improvements to the Girard Avenue interchange would amount to almost $2 billion in new investment for the area.
“That’s unheard of,” he said.
At a September hearing before the state’s Gaming Control Board, Greenberger raised concerns about having a 2nd casino just a mile from the SugarHouse Casino in Fishtown & Northern Liberties.
But he testified in that if the Wynn proposal were “augmented” with ideas for improving the area in between, “a powerful transformation could take place on our waterfront.”
Otherwise, Beach Street would have two noteworthy developments “without anything in between,” he said.
The biggest hurdle in the way of development on Beach Street is the hulking former Peco power station, now owned by Exelon Corp.
Exelon still operates four combustion turbines on Beach Street, yet the old, five-story Delaware Station is empty. Designed by John T. Windrim, the noted commercial architect whose firm moreover designed the Franklin Institute, it was built during an era when even utilitarian structures conveyed the same civic pride as museums.
Robert Judge Sr., a spokesman for Exelon, asserted the company had no plans to redevelop the station. But he added in that Exelon “periodically evaluates alternatives to redevelopment or reuse of all its sites.”
There is precedent for finding new uses for power stations. In 2003, Preferred Real Estate Incorporated finished a $65 million conversion in to office space of the Chester station of the Delaware County Electric Company.
McKenna toured Exelon’s Delaware Station several weeks ago. All the giant turbines have been removed. “It’s massive inside,” he said.
He asserted Keating Consulting had contacted “a handful of major developers” in the United States & abroad to test the waters of potential interest in the area.
“People are coming back & saying, yes, it has all the makings of noteworthy development,” McKenna said. But without the Wynn project, he added, “I don’t see anything happening on Beach Street anytime soon.”
jlin@phillynews.com
215-854-5659 @j_linq
www.inquirer.com/
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