Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker announced on Thursday that Burlington Stores, Inc. will move its corporate headquarters to University City.
The new headquarters, situated at 3151 Market St., is slated to open in fiscal year 2027. The Fortune 500 company — formerly based in Burlington Township, N.J. — aims to create 2,000 new jobs in the area over the next five years.
“This represents one of the largest corporate relocations ever in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said at a Sept. 3 press conference.
The $370 million move was supported by a $30 million investment from the Commonwealth.
“Those employees will become part of the daily life of Philadelphia,” Parker — who graduated from the Fels Institute of Government in 2016 — wrote in a press release. “They will ride SEPTA, support our restaurants and small businesses, enjoy our neighborhoods and world-class attractions, and contribute to the energy of our city every day.”
During the press conference, Parker announced that Burlington employees will receive unlimited free SEPTA transit passes for one year, courtesy of a $1 million contribution from the SEPTA Key Advantage program. The city is also backing the project through a $7 million high-impact forgivable loan package.
“Our Business Development team worked closely with Burlington throughout this process, connecting the company to the right people, resources and opportunities,” Karen Fegely, the City of Philadelphia’s acting director of commerce, wrote in the Thursday announcement. “Philadelphia has the talent, transit, institutions and business ecosystem companies need to grow, and our job is to make it easier for them to choose Philadelphia and succeed here.”
At the press conference, Burlington CEO Michael O’Sullivan said the company began its search for a new headquarters roughly a year ago.
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“We were very impressed by their clear priorities and their focus on getting stuff done around economic development, education and training, public transportation, public safety and fiscal responsibility,” Sullivan said of Philadelphia.
Burlington is the fifth major project supported by Project Review and Infrastructure Made Easy — a Parker administration initiative to support projects that generate jobs, investment, and economic growth in the city.
“Burlington is exactly why we created PHL PRIME,” Pat Christmas — director of the mayor’s Office of Policy Planning and Delivery — wrote. “PHL PRIME gets the right people around the table to work with the business and across City departments to keep high-impact projects moving on their target timeline.”
