What’s next for Philly’s Fashion District in Center City? Here’s what we know

So what was the general vibe after the meeting in late August?

“Having a building that is a medical science building seemed to be not a bad idea. My concern was what would happen on the Market East side. Because that’s our side and our side is full of empty storefronts,” said Sortman. “The board felt it was not a bad idea. But I can’t speak [for] every board member.”

It’s unclear how realistic Comcast Spectacor’s current vision would be.

As it stands, the Fashion District is owned, operated and its debt has been paid off by Macerich, a Santa Monica, California-based real estate business.

Neither the company nor the Sixers would confirm that a previously announced purchase agreement for roughly one-third of the Fashion District was still under contract.

The Sixers did not respond to comment for this story.

In December 2023, the Fashion District had a vacancy rate of 80% — which means 20% of the stores don’t have active retail tenant leases.

“We have not been approached by Comcast regarding [the] Fashion District,” said Kurt Ivey, senior vice president of marketing at Macerich, in a recent email. “We can tell you, we are very excited to be working with the Sixers on their new arena.”

About the Fashion District mall debt: Macerich was on the hook for 100% of the mortgage owed due in January 2024 after Philadelphia-based PREIT filed for bankruptcy and sold its stake. The mall renovation debt had a floating interest rate instead of a fixed percentage, meaning in a high-interest-rate environment, the company has to repay more money. In April 2024, Macerich repaid the last chunk of that mortgage — $8.1 million, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records.

But Sortman isn’t hyper-focused on Comcast Spectacor versus the Sixers. She just wants to see a cohesive vision for all property owners in the Market East commercial corridor.

“Here’s my thing: We’ve got City Hall on one end. We’ve got the historic district on the other, and then [we’ve] got a bridge that connects the two. That is broken right now,” she said.

She floated various ideas of a satellite destination store for Hershey’s, M&M’s, Peanut Chews, Peeps and Herr’s potato chips that would be a homegrown Pennsylvania landmark and tourist attraction. But she’s never gotten the chance to share any of those ideas with economic development leaders at the city or business districts.

“Why aren’t we capitalizing on our own industries here in this market in Philadelphia?”

So far, the only city entity the group has collaborated with closely has been the Streets Department. She chalked that reality up to new leadership “all getting their feet wet right now,” but that she’s excited to dig in with “awesome women leaders.”

“I’ve got vacant spaces all over the neighborhood that have been vacant since I’ve lived here,” she said.

And she’s got ideas about how to insert art and temporary history installations to replace papered window storefronts.