In 2014, as part of a feasibility study effort to identify and make the case for public and institutional funding for capital improvements, ESI conducted an analysis of the potential economic and fiscal impacts of the Delaware River Waterfront Commission’s (DRWC) proposed capital infrastructure investments, dealing primarily with and around Penn’s Landing. Using these forecasts, ESI calculated a significant potential return on public investment (ROI) if the extensive plan were to be fully implemented.
In 2022, roughly the half-way mark for the Plan implementation, DRWC approached ESI to help take account of and measure the impact of their efforts to date, after nearly a decade and the pandemic. Specifically, DRWC asked ESI to:
- Assess the economic and real estate value impacts of the plan’s implementation to-date – both public and private capital development and programmed activity, and the resulting increase in annual economic activity — along the riverfront since 2014.
- Forecast the potential future impacts that could be assisted by proposed future public capital infrastructure investment and further private development over the next decade.
- Assess the need to continue funding underway and future public capital infrastructure improvements in response to a short-term slowing of private real estate markets to maximize public benefits accruing from continued growth and investment throughout the entire DRWC District.
- Assess DRWC’s efforts to make sure that the Delaware riverfront continues to be a leader in the City’s equitable growth and development, with expanded investment, employment, residential, recreational and leisure benefits and opportunities open for all Philadelphians and visitors.
To date, DRWC’s efforts have been hugely successful: the DRWC Development District has become one of the hottest real estate submarkets in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and increased access to a wide swath of the riverfront has improved the quality of life for all residents and visitors, not only in the District and adjacent neighborhoods, but across the City and metropolitan region.
The Waterfront District has seen nearly $100 million in public infrastructure investment and roughly $1.11 billion in new or substantially completed private development investment since 2014. ESI estimates that the economic impact of this investment to be roughly $2 billion.