In 2024, Avenue of the Arts, Inc. (AAI), an arts district running along South Broad Street in Philadelphia, hired ESI to conduct an economic impact study looking at the organization from 2016 to 2024, as well as its newly released Avenue of the Arts 2.0 Vision Plan. The Plan’s goal is to enhance the Avenue of the Arts corridor, which runs along South Broad Street, by creating new, high quality, green spaces to pair with existing cultural, residential, and commercial offerings.
Using industry-standard input-output modeling, ESI looked at the direct, indirect, and induced economic output of the 2.0 Vision Plan, as well as the past and future impact of capital investments.
ESI found that the total economic output of the vision plan in Philadelphia would be $153 million, which grows to $185 million while looking at the output to Pennsylvania. Additionally, ESI found the tax revenue generated by this plan was $1.7 million in Philadelphia and $2.8 million for Pennsylvania.
When examining the impact of capital investments, ESI found that from 2016 through 2023, Avenue of the Arts generated $1.379 billion of economic output in Philadelphia and $1.624 billion in Pennsylvania, while supporting 7,500 and 8,600 jobs respectively.
Looking at the impact of capital investments in 2024 and onward, ESI estimated these investments would generate $1.182 billion in economic output for Philadelphia and $1.39 billion for Pennsylvania.