University City continues to be a focus of development activity and has 22 million square feet of proposed projects planned for the Philadelphia neighborhood that is already undergoing a building boom.
Why it’s transformational: University City is poised to become a premier center of innovation that will rank alongside and — perhaps even exceed — Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Silicon Valley as billions of dollars are being funneled into projects that will transform not only a neighborhood in the city but the region. The University of Pennsylvania’s Pennovation Center; Brandywine Realty Trust and Drexel University’s Schuylkill Yards; the University City Science Center and Wexford Science & Technology’s uCity Square development; the roll out of a master plan by Amtrak to reimagine and develop areas it owns around 30th Street Station; and the continued investment by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of the Sciences and the Pennsylvania Health System and other large stakeholders. Each of those projects will add millions of square feet of new office, lab, residential, educational and other spaces once built out over the ensuing years and solidify University City as a hub of research and innovation. That in itself will be a economic driver for the region.
The players: University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, University City Science Center, Wexford Science & Technology, CHOP, University City District.
