The coalition that fought the proposed 76ers basketball arena in Center City has released its own community-sourced concept for redevelopment of the site, six months after the fiercely debated arena project was suddenly canceled.
“A People’s Vision for Market East,” a set of conceptual designs to revitalize the struggling Fashion District mall where the sports venue was going to be built, was released Monday following months of community input and discussions led by the Save Chinatown Coalition.
The Sixers organization had planned to partially demolish the building and the adjoining former Greyhound bus station to make way for the arena. The People’s Vision, however, would keep the building, cut open walls to create open-air walkways, add a rooftop park and a residential tower, and invite local businesses and nonprofit organizations to occupy the mall’s many vacant retail spaces.
A rendering from the People’s Vision for Market East shows a proposed new apartment tower and other changes on and around the Fashion District Mall. (No Arena PHL)
Organizers said they want to offer not only an alternate design idea for the languishing Market East retail district, but also a broader model of development that reflects the needs and desires of city residents, rather than a strictly profit-oriented vision imposed by outside business interests.
“We fought like hell for two and a half years against what we did not want, and now we ask that the city, the developers, the politicians, work with the people to build what the people do want,” Asians American United co-founder Deborah Wei said during a presentation Monday. “A vision grounded in research, informed by thousands of community voices, supported by seasoned professionals, and mirroring best practices internationally.”
A critique of corporate-led redevelopment
In July 2022, the Sixers announced their $1.3 billion plan to build the 76ers Place arena over Jefferson Station at 10th and Market streets. Elected officials and some real estate experts applauded the proposal for its potential to bring more people to the struggling commercial corridor, which is studded with vacant store buildings and undeveloped lots.
But residents in adjoining Chinatown and other neighborhoods quickly denounced the plan, saying it would do little to help the local economy, would cause traffic gridlock and gentrification, and could spell the end of the 150-year-old ethnic enclave.
The 76ers organization and Mayor Cherelle Parker held numerous meetings and town halls to promote the proposal, while opponents staged angry public protests in Chinatown and at City Hall opposing it. Council approved the project in December, but less than a month later the Sixers stunned the city by canceling the plan in favor of building a new arena in the South Philly stadium complex instead.
That lengthy fight, and the city’s broader struggle to reimagine the once-bustling Market East retail district, figured prominently in the People’s Vision event held Monday at the Center for Design Philadelphia.
A rendering from the People’s Vision for Market East shows a proposed open space on Cuthbert Street behind the former Greyhound station. (No Arena PHL)
Over the past 60 years the city has spent hundreds of millions trying to redevelop the block, diverting funds that should have gone to support underserved communities of color in North Philadelphia and other areas, Wei said. Along the way, parts of Chinatown were destroyed by construction of the Vine Street Expressway and the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
She and other speakers criticized what they described as the typical top-down, closed-door planning of critical projects like various Market East developments.
Tayyib Smith, an entrepreneur in Philadelphia who focuses on equitable development, said such projects — especially those with good transit access — are these days driven by out-of-town developers and financial institutions. They put heavy pressure on elected officials and often produce bland, cookie-cutter shopping developments with the same group of national brands.
“What excites me about this is the possibility of having independent, small businesses and a diversity of usages that particularly speak to being at the center of a transit home,” he said, referring to the People’s Vision. “That’s the most exciting thing that I think we should be unapologetically demanding from our infrastructure, city planning, financiers, banks and corporate citizens who own property in close proximity.”
A rendering from the People’s Vision for Market East shows a proposed open walkway in a redeveloped Fashion District mall. (No Arena PHL)
Jessie Lawrence, director of city’s Department of Planning and Development, said on Tuesday that he appreciated “the continued attention the community is bringing to this portion of Market East, and the Parker administration agrees there is tremendous potential for this vital area in our downtown.”
“We look forward to sharing details soon about the process the administration will pursue, along with key external, internal and community stakeholders, for the short- and long-term vision for East Market Street,” he said.
Inviting in local small business for the long term
Over the past six months, the Save Chinatown Coalition has surveyed thousands of people from around the city, held a community design session, and enlisted volunteer design professionals to draw up a set of principles and sketches for the future of the Fashion District area, said Vivian Chang, executive director of Asian Americans United.
Chinatown activists held a community design meeting earlier this year to come up with a plan to redevelop the Fashion District mall. (No Arena PHL)
The drawings show the mall, renamed PHL Marketplace, with large open entryways cut through its walls, turning the ground floor into a kind of public market or hall, possibly divided into many small shops. Chang noted that the Fashion District is often criticized for its inward-facing design.
“Safety, revitalization, that only happens when you put people on the street. That only happens when we are actually part of this space, instead of a closed-off big box,” she said.
In the People’s Vision concepts, the lower concourse level could house social service and healthcare providers, a “justice center,” an immigrant welcome center, and more retail. The second floor might have large commercial tenants, while the third would continue to host a movie theater and bowling alley, and perhaps a maker space or community-gathering spot.
A rendering from the People’s Vision for Market East shows a proposed new apartment tower and rooftop green spaces over the Fashion District Mall. (No Arena PHL)
“We’re one of the few cities where you can still afford to have a small studio space and survive. That is something that has revitalized a lot of spaces,” Chang said. “So we’re saying, look, instead of, you know, H&M, Forever 21 — they go out of business. Let’s bring in micro businesses and then have those survive much longer.”
The renderings also show an apartment tower built over the west end of the mall, possibly with intergenerational affordable housing. The Fashion District’s roof would become a public green space for recreation and events, with a community garden for the tower residents. The old Greyhound station nearby could become a Chinatown history museum or cultural center, and Filbert Street would be improved.
A call for public funding
The vision is deliberately basic and flexible, and was created in part as an effort to change approaches to development broadly around the city, Chang said.
“Our goal is not to say this is branded and whatever. Our goal is to have this just be part of the conversation, instead of the typical ‘arena or nothing, stadium or nothing, casino or nothing,’” she said. “Like, it’s not nothing, it’s all these options.”
When asked how the redevelopment might be funded, Chang mentioned the property value of the Fashion District and the success of the Bok Building, a former high school converted into an arts and small business workspace in South Philadelphia. She noted that Scout, the firm that owns Bok, recently acquired two University of the Arts buildings and may turn them into similar artist spaces.
Chang also suggested, as other planners and developers have, that it would require an infusion of public dollars to convert Market East from a historically shopping-focused retail district into a more sustainable, lively neighborhood with a more residential feel.
Vivian Chang, executive director of Asian Americans United, presents the People’s Vision for Market East at the Center for Design Philadelphia. June 23, 2025. (Meir Rinde/Billy Penn)
“We can come to a different way of thinking about things and say, Look, this is not gonna be shiny,” she said. “If we’re like, OK, this is a city of neighborhoods, Market East deserves to be a neighborhood just like any other, then can we approach it in that scale?”
“There’s a lot of other cities that have done that with their downtowns, where you put in public financing, where you’re not just letting it go to the whims of, whatever person, whatever corporation is going to come in for now and then leave. Some of these are big ideas, but I think the city could do things in a different way,” she said.
The People’s Vision comes as advocates and neighborhood residents await the launch of a master-planning process for Market East. Mayor Cherelle Parker promised to “fast-track” the process in January, following the cancellation of the arena plan.
The mayor budgeted $750,000 for the effort and selected Jerry Sweeney, CEO of Brandywine Trust, to head a planning task force. In March, Lawrence said the city would make an announcement “very soon,” but otherwise there’s been no news about the status of the project.