The University City District recently released its fifth annual report, highlighting the growth that has taken place over the past year in the 2.2-square-mile district surrounding Penn.
This year's report, as compared to those of previous years, shows remarkable growth in private sector investment, such as the Cira Centre and the Spruce Hill Homes Condominiums.
"There are wonderful things happening in University City in terms of plans for new retail spaces [and] plans for new housing that could, of course, be offered to students," UCD spokeswoman Lori Brennan said.
Brennan said the report also mapped an explosion in the arts, citing the creation of a number of new programs in University City, including the Artist-in-Residence program, work from which is currently showcased at 40th and Chestnut streets.
"Arts make the big city big, and they also make the neighborhood unique," Facilities spokesman Tony Sorrentino said. "We're really excited about how arts activity is taking off in and around 40th Street because it creates a kind of multi-hour destination for people."
Another pattern the report shows is the tremendous increase in pedestrian traffic, especially on nights and weekends throughout the district.
"One of the things that we're seeing really across the board everywhere in University City, there are more people and there are more people here at night and on weekends," Brennan said, "which is saying to us that the population is growing, more people are frequenting our businesses and restaurants and that the students are perhaps staying around on the weekends ... because we have a lot of great offerings here."
The report can be used as a tool for a variety of purposes.
"Anybody who wants to look at opening a business here, anybody who wants to buy a house, anybody who just wants to learn about the wonderful things and ... the transformation that University City is experiencing, this report really documents it," Brennan said.
Sorrentino said that the University can "apply the lessons learned from this report in the data to how we make decisions that include retail development and other types of strategies that benefit the campus and the community."
"We look to UCD to play a significant role in keeping the University clean and safe and well-promoted," he added.
"UCD's done an excellent job of ... condensing a lot of data ... and using it to tell a story about how the community is improving every day and becoming more and more of a destination," Sorrentino said.
UCD is a non-profit organization that promotes the economic and cultural growth of the University City neighborhood.
