City announces entertainment complex plans

Officials hope the proposed movie theater and shopping center will revitalize depressed areas of North Philadelphia. Forget Liberty Place, don't make the trek to King of Prussia -- instead, think Jump Street USA, located in? North Philadelphia? It's true. Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell and City Council President John Street announced Monday that the 1600 block of North Broad Street will become the new home to a $50 million retail and entertainment complex, expected to break ground by the turn of the century. Rendell predicted that the center, which is slated to generate up to 500 new jobs, will dramatically revitalize the impoverished neighborhood and rival Center City as a tourist attraction. "[The project] will make North Philadelphia one of the best places to live in any city in America and make North Philadelphia a destination," Rendell said Monday to a gathering of 100 people at the proposed site. He also added that the complex will be an "exclamation point" to the The Apollo at Temple University, the school's recently completed sports arena and concert hall which has already begun to spark revitalization efforts in the area. The shopper's mecca will include more than 200,000 square feet of retail space as well as a nine- to 12-screen movie theater, which will seat up to 3,000, according to officials. Developer Drew Greenwald has modeled Jump Street USA after Harlem USA, a project currently under construction in Manhattan, N.Y. by Grid Properties, the New York firm of which he is president. The Harlem project has been in the works for six years already and is expected to open at the end of 1999. Disney, the Gap and Modell's Sporting Goods have all signed leases for the New York City complex. Although no tenants have yet agreed to set up shop in the Jump Street venture, Grid and city officials have mentioned Old Navy, Modell's and HMV Records as possibilities. Greenwald indicated that his company is also in negotiations with Magic Johnson Theatres to fill the entertainment portion of the complex. The theatres are operated by the former professional basketball star and the Sony Corp. North Philadelphia has been without a movie theater since 1988, when AMC conducted a short-lived experiment with one screen on North Broad Street that ultimately proved unsuccessful in the dejected neighborhood. In the 1950s and 1960s, the neighborhood was host to a number of movie theaters, which contributed to the then-thriving political and cultural hub of black Philadelphia along Cecil B. Moore Avenue, popularly known as Jump Street. Although the financial details have yet to be finalized, funding for the project is expected to come from a variety of public and private sources, according to Rendell. The proposed site's location within a federally designated empowerment zone also makes it eligible for several government grants and loans, including tax incentives. Construction of the three-floor complex will necessitate the the relocation of several agencies and businesses which currently occupy the site, including the Women's Christian Alliance, an insurance agency and a music store. But according to Rendell, the city is currently in negotiations with the owners, and there are no foreseen difficulties. Although Temple will have no direct involvement in the nearby facility, the construction of the complex will undoubtedly have an impact on the surrounding university, according to school officials. "Although it's not Temple's project, we are, of course, very interested in it because it's in our neighborhood and there is that synergy that exists between a university and its community," Temple spokesperson Harriet Goodheart said. "There are no downsides to the plan, as far as anyone here is concerned," Goodheart added. "We are very excited about the benefits [the complex] will bring to the whole community and the university population."