Past the blue iron gate that proclaims "The Navy Yard," a silver cruiser floats motionlessly at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. At its base, an abandoned gun turret cowers in a sea of grass opposite a white house.
Its days of glory are over. The turret sits poised for action, but its beige outer coating has succumbed to the sun's rays. The relic is a reminder of the Philadelphia Navy Yard's zenith in the bygone days of naval shipbuilding.
Yet it is anything but quiet down at the Navy Yard.
Although the birthplace of many American Navy ships closed in September of 1996 as part of federal efforts to reduce unnecessary expenditures, the Navy Yard has been making a grand splash at the southern tip of Philadelphia in recent years.
Drive past the dilapidated warehouses, follow the sound of engines humming and steel pounding until you come face-to-face with the Maunalei, a container ship that waits eagerly to be finished in the spring of 2006.
It's where ghost town meets lively, bustling shipyard.
In the mid-1990s, the Defense Department's decision to close the yard, which had employed hundreds of thousands of blue-collar workers over its lifetime, came as a shock. Yet in 1996 the shipyard that had built the Philadelphia, the New Orleans and even the Princeton was shut down.
The Navy Yard's closure meant the loss of thousands of jobs and a two percent spike in the region's unemployment. After decades of construction and retrofitting and many political promises, the large swath of land was shut after almost 120 years of operation at that location.
Past to Present
George Barrowman remembers the days when Philadelphia basked at the heights of shipbuilding. He entered the industry at age 15 in Scotland. A 48-year shipbuilding veteran, Barrowman was working as a subcontractor for the Navy Yard at the time of its closure.
Now, Barrowman, 64, is a team leader for the Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, Inc., the result of a public-private partnership formed in 1996 between the city of Philadelphia, the state of Pennsylvania, the U.S. government and a Norwegian company, Kvaerner. Barrowman started working at Kvaerner five years ago.
His shift starts at 7 in the morning and ends at 3 p.m.
As team leader, he is responsible for making sure that his teammates have proper safety materials, adequate ventilation and lighting conditions and any work materials throughout the course of the day.
As his measuring tape dangles from his blue work pants, Barrowman jokes that his favorite part of the job is payday, but adds in a more serious tone, "When you see the ship float out of the dry dock, that's the best day you can have."
When Kvaerner first came into the Navy Yard in 1997 as its newest neighbor, the shipyard did not look anything like it does today. The facilities the Navy left behind had to be torn down and completely renovated before the transformation into the modern-day shipyard could begin.
"I remember the mud and sound of piles being driven," says John Graykowski, general counsel for the Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard.
Since Kvaerner reached full operating ability in 2000, it has produced three ships for Matson Navigation Company, an Oakland, Calif.-based shipping firm. Kvaerner currently holds a 99-year lease on the land and plans to deliver a fourth ship, the Maunalei, in April or May of 2006.
But the Navy Yard's extreme makeover was not limited to shipbuilding.
After the shipyard's closure, the Navy retained a limited presence on-site and concentrated on long-term research and development projects. In 2000, the federal government transferred control of about five-sixths of the 1,200-acre stretch of land -- which includes eight miles of waterfront property -- to the city of Philadelphia.
After the adoption, the city realized that it had a cranky baby in its hands; some worried the Navy Yard's existing infrastructure made it unattractive to businesses and other members of the corporate sector that were looking for a new home.
However, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, an agency that manages public property on behalf of the city, has found commercial tenants to move into 17 newly renovated historic buildings.
Now, developers, businesses and even laboratories are calling the Navy Yard home.
New Neighbors on the Block
Vitetta, an architectural and engineering firm, led the way in August 1999, even before PIDC formally acquired ownership of the Navy Yard from the government.
"We thought it was better than Center City," Vitetta President Alan Hoffmann says. The company decided to relocate from its former quarters at Broad and Wallace streets after its lease expired.
Last September, the Navy Yard got an added boost when the city and PIDC revealed a new master plan that calls for a mixed-use approach to the 525 acres of land east of Broad Street and a mile and a half of waterfront. The project expects to generate 30,000 jobs and $2 billion in development.
Among the four zones included in the initiative is the Corporate Center, a 72-acre, 1.4 million-square-foot office campus setting currently being developed by Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners. Over the course of the next 10 to 15 years, the plan calls for a series of highly modern and efficient three-to-five story office buildings, with prospective tenants ranging from health care-related businesses to biotechnology firms. The first of these, a 77,000-square-foot, four-story building called One Crescent Drive, is slated to be finished in November.
John Gattuso, senior vice president of national development for Liberty Property Trust, believes that the Navy Yard's ideal location -- with convenient access from the Philadelphia International Airport, 30th Street Station and interstates 95 and 76 -- guarantees that it will be a "key attraction."
Investors are aware of the draws of the Navy Yard, and the chance for a fresh start with a historical site further entices new development.
"Unlike many projects that start with a blank slate, we really were able to build off of [the historic] context and create, even in the initial phases of the project, a real urban-suburban feel," Gattuso says.
On the same note, Urban Outfitters, Inc. -- the owner of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and wholesale division Free People -- has embraced the Navy Yard as its new corporate headquarters.
Urban Outfitters Chairman Richard Hayne cited corporate expansion as the primary reason for relocating the company's central offices. Currently, the popular clothing retailer has about 90,000 square feet of combined corporate office space in five Center City locations.
The project -- which will cost about $40 million -- calls for occupying 300,000 square feet of historic buildings at the shipyard and will satisfy the company's need for a spacious corporate environment.
"We were looking for a place, a home, where the corporate group could exist but still have separate identities for the brands," Hayne says. "We fell in love with the site, with the old buildings," he adds regarding the company's choice of the Navy Yard.
Hayne says that each brand will have its own building, with remaining structures to house corporate events, shared services and a "bed and breakfast for visitors and other corporate people coming to Philadelphia." About 150 Anthropologie staff members moved into the new location over Labor Day weekend. But it won't be until late spring or early summer of next year that the corporation officially settles into its new environment.
John Grady, PIDC's senior vice president, views Urban Outfitters' move as a success.
"They're right at the transition point from the industrial Navy Yard into the more historical campus-office environment. They're going to have a tremendous, dynamic presence down there. They're a young, vibrant company with a great work force," he says.
An Uncertain Future
In a study released by the Philadelphia Gaming Advisory Taskforce last month, the commission identified the Navy Yard among its list of potential slot-parlor sites.
Grady says that the existing road system, under heavy use already due to the adjacent sports complex, is not suitable for high levels of traffic. He adds that this problem was presented to the mayor's gaming task force and that so far, no one has come forward with a proposal that solves all of the traffic issues.
"You're limited to Broad Street, one way in and one way out," Grady says.
Micah Mahjoubian, director of operations for the Gaming Taskforce, says that traffic could amount to as much as 5 million visits a year, which would definitely aggravate transportation issues.
However, when compared to the other sites on the report -- which typically fall in the range of 30 acres or less of viable operating space -- the Navy Yard stands out in terms of the vast amount of territory it affords.
Mahjoubian said that this advantage would allow casinos to put all of their slot machines on one floor and provide additional amenities on the spot as well.
Despite all the recent talk surrounding upcoming projects at the Navy Yard, Harris Steinberg, executive director of Penn Praxis, says that any kind of development must keep a steady objective in mind.
"There hasn't been any kind of sustained vision for the Navy Yard. Everyone is just like, 'Let's put it over there,'" he says. Steinberg feels that the Navy Yard is not as open to the public as it should be -- a problem exacerbated by the guarded entrance and continued Navy presence.
"It could be, really should be, a public space down there. It could be the crown jewel in our waterfront development," he says.
