PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After years of discussion, months of negotiations and protests, weeks of hearings and a series of delayed votes, Philadelphia City Council on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a 76ers arena on East Market Street in Center City.
The 12-4 vote came at a raucous meeting of the Committee of the Whole just before council’s regular session, assuring that — barring some extraordinary circumstance — the arena legislation will get final approval before council recesses for the holidays next week, thus meeting the Sixers’ timeline for beginning construction in 2026 and playing games there in 2031.
“City Council took monumental action on this $1.3 billion economic development project for Philadelphia that, as I have consistently said, extends far beyond the basketball,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said in an emailed statement. “I want to commend City Council for all of the due diligence and hard work that it brought to this process.”
Arena opponents and supporters packed council chambers before 8:30 a.m.
Opponents were stamping their feet, shaking tambourines and chanting slogans like “The people united will never be defeated,” while supporters would periodically drown them out, chanting “Build it.”
The commotion barely let up when council convened, forcing the arena bills’ sponsor Mark Squilla to shout to be heard as he introduced amendments and called for a vote.
Committee votes are done by a show of hands, but Council President Kenyatta Johnson noted that Jaime Gauthier, Rue Landau, Jeffrey Young and Nic O’Rourke voted no.
“The bill just never got good enough,” Gauthier said. “The deal came to us with virtually no anti-displacement protections, the bill is leaving council with virtually no anti-displacement protections. I don’t understand how, as a city, we can say we care about Chinatown, we care about vulnerable communities, if we’re willing to push forward a project that our own impact study says will displace people.”
Landau said they gave the Sixers every opportunity to come to the table with a good deal and they didn’t do it.
Gauthier and Landau had pushed for a $100 million Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), with money for affordable housing and small businesses likely to be disrupted by arena construction. Members said Johnson briefly considered simply putting the amount into the legislation without the Sixers' approval. As late as minutes before the vote, he was holding out for a $75 million CBA. The Sixers, though, did not engage and Johnson stuck to the $60 million the Sixers agreed to last week — $10 million more than the original CBA they negotiated with Parker in September.
“No bill is a perfect bill,” Johnson said after the vote. “But you have a deal that was able to address the variety of different concerns of City Council as well as making sure we’re addressing the concerns of individuals who live in Chinatown and the surrounding community.”
The 76ers thanked City Council in a statement. “This is an important next step in building 76 Place,” a 76ers spokesperson said. “We are reviewing the amendments that were added today to ensure they align with our understanding of our agreement with the City.”
The CBA approved by the Council Committee includes:
— $17. 5 million for an arena special services district
— $3 million for housing support
— $5 million for a business disruption to provide grants to businesses impacted by construction
— $3 million for a public safety substation staffed by Philadelphia Police Department, SEPTA police, and local security
— $2 million for a Chinatown legacy business grant fund
— $250,000 for a Chinatown community land trust
Parker sought to assure council members that the $3 million in housing support in the CBA would be supplemented by city spending. In a letter to council members Thursday, her planning director Jesse Lawrence said, “The Administration is committed to dedicating an additional $20,000,000 … to affordable housing activities in the Chinatown community.”