PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Paul Levy, the only CEO the Center City District has ever had, is stepping down at the end of this year.
Under a transition plan approved Tuesday by the improvement district’s board, Levy, 76, will remain president and CEO until the end of December. Prema Katari Gupta, CCD’s current Vice President for Parks and Public Realm, will take over on January 1, 2024. Levy will hold an advisory role through 2024.
Levy, in an interview with KYW Newsradio, said for several months he’d considered stepping back from running the organization he started in 1991. He admits he suffers from what people call “the founder’s problem.”
“I couldn’t imagine myself or the organization without me. And that’s frankly, not healthy for the organization and continuity,” he shared.
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The Center City District employs 110 people in teal uniforms who clean sidewalks and 80 more on bike patrols. When the Center City District began, Levy recalls, the downtown area wasn’t very lively. “When we started the organization, it was largely a 9-to-5 office district that shut down at 5:30 at night,” he said.
“We literally had to have a campaign in 1992 called ‘Make it a Night’ to urge retailers to stay open one night a week, Wednesday, and to have people come out.”
Levy says even though Center City hasn’t fully bounced back from the effects of the pandemic, it’s dramatically better than it was three decades ago. “I do not buy the argument that return to office has plateaued. It has not plateaued in Philadelphia,” he said.
“Do we get back to where we were in 2019? Anyone’s guess is as good as mine but I don’t believe in running up the flag of surrender. I think it’s too important.”
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