The retail world is changing in response to emerging technologies and consumers’ reliance on the Internet. Over the past few years, we have seen major retailers decrease their number of brick-and-mortar stores across the country to narrow their focus and maintain profits. At The Lighting Practice, our team has designed “smart” lighting systems to boost connectivity for tech-savvy shoppers. These and other moves in the retail world aim to deliver the shopping experience of the future.
Retail stores are also responding to space challenges in urban areas as these settings become increasingly in-demand. The concurrent developments East Market and Fashion District in Philadelphia will together deliver about one million square feet of new retail space in an area that was previously blighted, according to an article in Bisnow. The East Market development includes a new 17-story residential tower with a two-level retail base, the adaptive re-use of an eight-story department store, restoration of a historic office building, and conversion of forgotten alleyways into retail streets. The Lighting Practice’s Alfred Borden, Principal, Rochelle Spahn, Associate, and John Conley, Lighting Designer, designed the lighting system for East Market, more specifically the interior and exterior lighting for all common areas, residential spaces, and the streetscape and signage.
“We’re seeing time and again that Philadelphia garners a lot of retailers’ attention,” said United States Commercial Real Estate Services (CBRE) Managing Director of Retail Steven Gartner. “We continue to have a rare and enviable downtown vibe that few cities have, where we have hundreds of thousands in population in the center, where other cities will boast about having a 10th of that.”
Market East’s New Retail Developments Are Bucking Against Negative National Trends
Bisnow | February 2018
Philly remains a strong market overall for the retail real estate, swimming against the national current — and the Market East area is providing a strong kick.
Though retail indicators continue to decline at a national level, total retail sales increased by 4.3% from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the same period last year in Philadelphia, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report. Sales are projected to increase again by 4.7% by the end of this year, in large part due to the significant new deliveries in Market East. Situated just across the street from each other and a block away from the Pennsylvania Convention Center and Reading Terminal Market, the concurrent developments East Market and Fashion District Philadelphia will deliver around 1M SF of new retail space between them when completed in an area that was previously considered blighted.
Even before PREIT and Macerich decided to shutter and redevelop it into Fashion District, the Gallery had been dying a slow death as an inward-facing hodgepodge of outdated spaces. Around it, little was there to activate the street level at what was already one of the busiest areas in the city for foot traffic.