State and city leaders unveil updated $150M vision for the Avenue of the Arts

At that very building on January 14, Rendell’s example was cited repeatedly at a press conference, where AveArts 2.0, the ongoing vision for the Avenue of the Arts, was unveiled, along with new renderings of what it would look like. Mayor Cherelle Parker led a parade of local elected officials who laid out an ambitious 10-year, $150 million plan for a reinvention of the Avenue, before holding a ceremonial groundbreaking on the first phase of it.

Avenue of the Arts, Inc. chairman and leading real-estate developer Carl Dranoff and the organization’s executive director, Desaree Jones, joined the elected leaders in expressing a desire to build something comparable to the great boulevards of the world, like the Champs Élysées in Paris or the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. The architectural firm Gensler designed the project.

Among those speaking at the event, besides the mayor, Jones, and Dranoff, were Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, City Council member Mark Squilla, Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval, Pennsylvania State Rep. Jordan Harris, and Temple University President John Fry. Not recognized at the event, perhaps notably, were any leaders of organized labor.

The new Avenue

So what will it look like? The Avenue of the Arts announcement describes the vision as “a green, pedestrian-centric boulevard featuring landscaped medians, seating, enhanced lighting, outdoor performance spaces, rotating public art, and sculptural elements.”

There wasn’t much said about specific new plans for the arts themselves, aside from those outdoor performance spaces, which will be used for pop-up concerts and other such events, as well as public art.

In addition, Temple’s Fry talked up the university’s recent purchase of Terra Hall, the former building of the shuttered University of the Arts, as something that will give the university a foothold on South Broad and bring more Temple students to Center City. Also, Fry expressed a desire for that building, when it opens in 2027, to eventually serve as “an intellectual, cultural and arts hub,” and Philadelphia’s answer to New York’s 92nd Street Y, which regularly hosts major cultural events.

The groundbreaking kicked off the first phase of the AveArts 2.0 project, between Spruce and Pine, on the block directly in front of the Kimmel Center. The work on the new median strip will begin this month. The next phase, focused on sidewalks and other elements, will follow in 2027.

Still in the “proposal” phase, with funding pending

According to a video presented at the event, narrated by CBS 3 anchor Ukee Washington, Avenue of the Arts, Inc. “proposes” the boulevard project.

Indeed, the $150 million figure does not mean the entire project is funded. The new version of the boulevard will be built “block by block”—on the 12 blocks from Washington Avenue to City Hall—and will be funded gradually as well. The Avenue of the Arts website says the project will be funded “one block at a time as funding becomes available.”

Who is paying for it? The funding so far has come from both the city and the state, as well as “corporate and private funders.” The governments, so far, have each only contributed in the single-digit millions.

We caught up with Carl Dranoff, the developer and chairman of Avenue of the Arts, Inc., about the plans for the project and its funding.

“It’s city, state, and private donors,” he said at the January 14 press conference of the funding so far. “There’s going to be foundations that are going to jump in, and other investor-type groups that are going to be donors that we haven’t identified yet.”

Some of the choices will depend on what funding becomes available.

“If we find, for example, a $15 million donor that happens to be located between Walnut and Locust, it’s more than likely that that will be our next block,” Dranoff said. “The beauty of this whole plan is that we can go block by block.”

“As we’re building one street, we’re going to be designing the next street, and raising the money as we go along,” the developer told BSR. “We hope there will be a critical mass, at some point, and have all the money and the funding for the entire 10 blocks.”

South Broad Street, Dranoff added, will lose some parking in the bargain.

Chronic uncertainty

It’s worth asking whether the beautification of a major thoroughfare in a wealthy area is the best possible civic use of $150 million, or whatever the public portion of the cost ends up being, especially at a time of uncertain SEPTA funding and other fiscal challenges.

And major ambitious building projects in Philadelphia have an unfortunate tendency to get delayed, downscaled, or not happen at all, or otherwise end up much more expensive than when they were first unveiled. When the Avenue of the Arts 2.0 project was first announced in 2024, its listed price tag was $100 million; now it’s $150 million.

Should there be a recession or other economic calamity in the next few years, it would appear all bets are off when it comes to what might become of the Avenue project.

As of now, though, the project has the support of some powerful lawmakers, including the mayor, the council president, and Rep. Harris, who chairs the appropriations committee in the State House.

Worries of a pandemic-era city

What was the original impetus for modernizing South Broad?

“It came from the pandemic,” Dranoff told BSR. “In 2020, when we saw all of our venues being vacant, and [I], and a few other people, were worried about the city coming back, and what we needed to do to make investments, to get people to come back into the city…. Without making these investments, and making the city more attractive, or making our streetscapes more interesting and resilient, people won’t come.”