Philly’s seaport unveils a 15-year plan for future growth: More dredging, increased container capacity, cruises

The deepening of the Delaware River. Buying up more land. And a potential joint venture with the developer behind the Bellwether District.

These are some of the initiatives outlined in a 15-year plan unveiled Tuesday by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, a state agency known as PhilaPort that owns various Delaware River facilities that connect the region to international trade.

The port authority says the report — titled PhilaPort Strategic Plan: Destination 2040 — will guide its requests for capital funding from Harrisburg. Officials say the projects identified in the plan would result in almost 9,000 new direct jobs, such as warehouse positions, thousands more indirect jobs in industries linked to the port, and $170 million in new annual state and local tax revenues by 2040.

“Implementing the plan allows us to continue supporting the countless businesses that rely on the port for timely and cost-effective delivery of their cargo while simultaneously maintaining and growing critical living wage jobs in the region,” Jeff Theobald, PhilaPort’s CEO, said in a statement.

Ports including Philadelphia see opportunity as container traffic has shifted from the West to East Coast, analysts say, though that years-long trend has been interrupted by disruptions at key trade routes like the Panama and Suez Canals.

Here’s what you need to know about the plan.

PhilaPort owns several marine terminals, warehouses, and other facilities along the Delaware River from Port Richmond to South Philadelphia and leases them to private operators. An independent state agency, the authority’s operating budget is funded by rent paid by its tenants, but it receives capital funding from the state and federal governments. Its 11 board members are appointed by the governor and legislative leaders; they include current and former government officials, private sector leaders, and labor leaders from the Teamsters and International Longshoremen’s Association.

Starting about two years ago, then-Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration “got behind the idea of us coming up with a solid, comprehensive plan to really guide our development scenarios and their associated capital asks,” said Ryan Mulvey, a PhilaPort spokesperson. That interest from the governor’s office continued after Gov. Josh Shapiro, who like Wolf is a Democrat, took office in 2023, Mulvey said, and the port authority hired global engineering and consulting firm Hatch to take the lead.

The port authority says the plan — the first such comprehensive proposal PhilaPort has developed — will help it balance demand for new cargo capacity with other priorities such as sustainability, as well as keep pace with investments by competitor ports.

It comes after the pandemic tested the resilience of supply chains and consumers grappled with shortages of goods. The key role ports play in the economy was further underscored by last week’s brief strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association at East and Gulf Coast terminals, which temporarily shuttered commerce at major trade hubs.

The Port of Philadelphia is a relatively small player compared to other main U.S. container ports, ranking 17th in terms of container cargo volume last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The top East Coast port, New York-New Jersey, handled 7.8 million container units in 2023 — more than tenfold Philadelphia’s 743,000 units.

But it’s considered a top port for refrigerated cargoes such as produce, which are sensitive to temperature and require specialized handling. The Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia is the third largest refrigerated terminal in the U.S., with more than 4 million cubic feet of refrigerated cargo space, the report says.

And Philly’s port has been growing in recent years. Its 2023 container throughput — the amount of container cargo it handled — was up 80% over 2016 levels. That increase came amid the deepening of the Delaware River’s main channel from 40 feet to 45 feet; the expansion of the Panama Canal in Central America, which has allowed bigger ships to navigate the trade route that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans; and state investments in new infrastructure such as cranes and warehouses.

Growth has been driven by increased trade from Central and South America, which account for more than 50% of the port’s containerized tonnage, according to the new report. Perishable products such as bananas, citrus, and meat make up more than 30% of the port’s container cargo volume.

In addition to containers — the big, stackable metal boxes that drive global trade — the port’s other cargoes include breakbulk, like paper and pulp; liquid bulk, like petroleum-based products; and automobiles.

The report says throughput is forecast to grow to 1.6 million container units by 2040 — more than double last year’s volume — and demand could exceed the port’s existing capacity in the late 2020s.

The plan aims to identify initiatives that would expand capacity.

The plan identifies short- and long-term priorities for expanding cargo capacity and generating new business at the port. PhilaPort says the plan will add 550,000 square feet of warehouse storage, increasing available space by 17%. It would triple the port’s capacity to handle containers, from 1 million units today to 3 million by 2040.

Short- and medium-term priorities include:

Long-term priorities include: