Sixers hold tense public meeting to tout and take questions on proposed arena

At a public meeting the Sixers held Thursday night to answer questions about the team’s proposed arena next to Philadelphia’s Chinatown, some protesters initially were kicked out for holding up critical signs.

“0$ cost to Philly taxpayers. Who pays for infrastructure?” and “11 jobs for Camden at Sixers HQ? Can’t trust this process” were among the signs that got a handful of people ejected from an audience of several hundred.

Over the course of about two and a half hours inside a large hotel ballroom, the Sixers took questions from anyone who cared to ask — and insisted to all that their project would be a huge, tax-generating win for Philadelphia.

“There are a whole lot of questions that have been asked over and over and haven’t been answered,” said the Rev. Michael Caine, after he was accompanied out of the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown ballroom by security workers. He was joined by Camille Boggan, who said, “This project is not being marketed honestly.”

Sixers part-owner David Adelman, the lead developer behind the project, eventually said people could stay.

“To my friends with the signs, we’re gonna have an opportunity for you to ask those questions. You don’t need signs, we have microphones. ... You don’t need to leave with your sign. We invite you to stay.”

Attendees arriving at the hotel at 17th and Race Streets were met by written advisories in English and Chinese that said, for safety, everyone would undergo a metal-detecting process. People were alerted to refrain from interrupting others and against “disruptive behavior,” including booing or cheering.

“If you do not agree with these rules, this is an opportunity for you to leave the meeting,” a sign said, adding that “these rules will be enforced.”

Outside the Sheraton, roughly 100 people gathered sporting blue “PRO-JOBS PRO-UNION PRO-ARENA” T-shirts. They filed into the meeting hall with soft pretzels and cookies in hand, courtesy of a snack table set up outside the room by the Sixers.

Arena supporters passed out orange T-shirts that said “our community our voice our arena.”

Adelman was the first to take to the podium with a walk-through of the $1.55 billion project. He reiterated the benefits the Sixers claim the arena would bring to Philadelphia, including their estimate of $1 billion in tax revenue, the revitalization of a depressed Market East and the creation of economic opportunities for small businesses.

”Most importantly, I want to bring to Philadelphia the best arena in the country,” Adelman said, which was met with a round of applause from the crowd.

Adelman added that the team has prioritized community feedback on the arena through meetings with different neighborhoods. Those meetings, he said, resulted in a team partnership with Parkway Corporation to address parking and traffic concerns, as well as the addition of a housing tower to the arena, a portion of which will be dedicated to affordable housing.

Adelman was asked about the Sixers’ pledge not to use city taxpayer funds, and he answered that nearly every arena gets a public subsidy, but 76 Place will be one of a handful that takes no city money.

“We have said consistently we don’t need state or federal money to make this project happen. That said, if there’s incentive from the government to use solar for example, or some new technology that exists, we might. But let me be clear: We are not seeking any city money,” Adelman insisted.

When a teacher asked why the arena has to be downtown, noting there is plenty of infrastructure in South Philadelphia where the Sixers can build and provide union jobs, Adelman responded that he respectfully disagrees.

“From our perspective, we get the benefit of going where our fans wanna go, which — proven across the NBA — is downtown. But most importantly, the Fashion District Mall is on the verge of not existing, leaving a void in the city,” he said. “Our hope is that we can finally do something great to resurrect that mall, maintain part of it, and get the traffic and activity back on the street from a public safety perspective.”

One audience member identifying herself as a union leader asked: “How can you protect Chinatown from getting gentrified? We support the arena … but also understand why folks in Chinatown need to be protected from losing their neighborhood.”

David Gould, the chief diversity and impact officer for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates the team, responded: “We want to protect the cultural gems of Chinatown and the surrounding communities. We are willing to do our part. We also welcome any policy or legislation in the city … to make sure that everybody benefits from this development.”

A woman asked how the team plans to carry out and uphold the $50 million community benefits agreement they’ve touted. She cited a history of CBAs that have been abandoned by developers, such as the Barclays Center in New York.

”We’re committed to drafting a CBA that is legally binding,” Gould responded. He added that after purchasing the land for the arena, they plan to donate it to the city. “We would essentially be a tenant of the city on that land. The CBA would be an exhibit to that … which gives the city a public mechanism to hold us accountable.”

Adelman said the project will not displace a single home or business.

Chinatown advocates have argued that the effect may not be immediate, but an arena will slowly and surely kill the neighborhood.

JJ Rivers, studio director at Gensler and one of the designers behind the arena, walked the crowd through early renderings of the project, cautioning that they are subject to change. The goals of the design, he said, are to have an open and active space that’s engaging with the community. The renderings showed floor-to-ceiling windows wrapping around the building, a bustling ground floor with retail businesses, and an entrance to Jefferson Station inside the arena.

Alex Kafenbaum, head of development at Harris Blitzer, displayed a map that showed where 76ers fans work based on cell phone data, many of whom are concentrated in Center City. Fans’ nearby work locations means the arena location is ideal, he said.

76 Place is still largely relying on fans changing their transportation behavior from driving to public transit. Kafenbaum said they estimate 40% of fans will drive to games and events, creating a need for 3,100 parking spots — and the company’s analysis of parking garages within a half-mile of the proposed arena location found an available 9,000 parking spaces. The Sixers estimate another 40% will use public transit, which Kafenbaum said would cut down travel time for many driving fans by about 40 minutes on average. An additional 10% will walk to games.

Experts who study sports stadiums and arenas have said the Sixers will be challenged to change the behavior of people who in some cases have been driving to games for decades. A team-ownership official estimated in June that currently about 75% of fans drive to games at the Wells Fargo Center.

Thursday’s meeting came after the Sixers held a tightly controlled series of online information sessions in August during which the team faced questions around its promise of new jobs and huge financial benefits for the city.

Neeta Patel, interim executive director of Asian Americans United, which opposes the plan to build an arena on the edge of Chinatown, described the sessions as infomercials and called on Adelman and fellow Sixers owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer to “come to Chinatown and meet our community in public and in person.”

Thursday night’s presentation was in English and simplified Chinese characters, and the team provided consecutive interpretations in Mandarin and Cantonese, the two main languages in China.

The meeting came as the debate over the project nears discussion in City Council.

Two days after winning election earlier this month, incoming Mayor Cherelle Parker said she was awaiting the release of city-sponsored impact studies about the arena and implied she would not be swayed solely by vocal opposition in Chinatown.

“I will make sure that the voice of the people in neighborhoods throughout the city are heard on that issue. There will be no one voice that will dominate the discussion,” she said. “The community matters there. But that is the community citywide.”

City Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose 1st District includes the proposed site, has said that he will not endorse the arena absent community support but that Chinatown alone won’t be sufficient to block it if other groups, such as SEPTA or the Washington Square West Civic Association, are in favor.

All involved await the release of the studies that aim to examine the arena’s design and its impact on economics and neighborhoods. The first glimpse into that work came last week, when Sarah Yeung of Sojourner Consulting shared data that showed both Chinatown’s population and the cost of living there have grown dramatically.

City officials have said the studies, paid for by the Sixers, would be key to their decisions. The economic and community assessments are expected by the end of the year before the new mayor and Council are seated in January.