‘University City’ keeps pushing westward

A huge new office building could rise in University City as soon as next spring, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday.
The 3.0 University Place building, at 41st and Market Streets, hopes to attract “tech-savvy tenants,” according to the report. It’s not surprising, given how the Philly commercial real estate scene is in a frenzy over startups.
This uptick of real estate development, driven in part by the promise of the local tech scene, in University City and other neighborhoods has raised questions about its effects on surrounding neighborhoods.
Developer Scott Mazo spoke to the Inquirer about the location of his new development, which borders lower-income neighborhoods.
“The millennials want to break through some of those barriers, some of those social dynamics of economic disparity and race,” Mazo told the Inquirer. “The area is so much more dynamic.”
Just a few blocks east of that development is the ambitious University City Science Center’s uCity Square development, which raises similar questions. Science Center CEO Steve Tang has been vocal about the Science Center’s commitment to investing in the neighborhood around uCity Square and trying to buck the trend of gentrification.
It’s definitely an issue we’ll be watching.