PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia officials and developers on Tuesday celebrated the first groundbreaking at the Navy Yard since the pandemic.
The project represents a new model of real estate development that could propel the city's economy into a new era in the city's life sciences economy.
The building is called only by its address, 1201 Normandy, because it has no tenants yet.
That's not the way developers in Philadelphia normally do business, because they want tenants before they invest in construction.
That reluctance to speculate has left the city's life sciences sector trailing cities such as Boston and San Francisco, because life science companies need space fast to get their products to market.
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Kate MacNamara, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation's senior vice president for the Navy Yard, said that they don't have time to wait for ground-up construction.
“It is really filling a critical gap that we have seen for years in Philadelphia,” she said.
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“We see this sector as leading Philadelphia's recovery and we are really, really excited to have this first building going up at the Navy Yard.”
The project also includes the city's largest minority-owned developer, Mosaid, as a lead partner.
CEO Greg Reaves said that will help insure communities of color benefit as the life sciences sector expands.
“We're breaking new ground here; we’re breaking new ground here,” Reaves said.
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