Penn’s Landing site eyed by Sixers draws another bid, from Washington, D.C.-based firm

Another rival has emerged with a bid for the Penn’s Landing site that the 76ers are eyeing to rebuild: a group led by developer Hoffman & Associates of Washington.

The Hoffman plan calls for a dense cluster of high-rise buildings along the waterfront between Market and Chestnut Streets, north of the planned park that would cap I-95, according to site renderings and a plan summary provided to The Inquirer.

The Hoffman proposal also posits a row of shorter towers fronting boat slips to the south between Spruce and Lombard Streets.

“Our proposal is to create a true world-class waterfront neighborhood for the city of Philadelphia,” Hoffman wrote in the summary. “We will mix for-sale and rental housing with hotel, office, retail, restaurant, cultural, and entertainment uses together to create a vibrant 18-hour neighborhood which is open and accessible to all people [and] respects the rich history of the site.”

Hoffman is the third developer known to have submitted proposals to the Delaware River Waterfront Corp., the government-affiliated nonprofit that owns Penn’s Landing, after the Sixers and New York real estate company the Durst Organization.

The Hoffman proposal names concert promoters Live Nation and Bowery Presents as potential music venue operators. As with the Sixers’ plan, it envisions moving the African American Museum from Seventh and Arch Streets to the waterfront, where it would join an upgraded Seaport Museum.

Other proposed collaborators include the Enterprise Center, a West Philadelphia-based employment-development nonprofit, and Asana Partners, a retail-focused real estate group in Charlotte, N.C., that has been an active buyer of Center City property.

The project is projected to create nearly 13,000 jobs during its construction and operation, and to generate more than $860 million in annual labor income, according to the summary.

The company also said it would not seek any tax breaks for its project beyond “standard development tools utilized in Philadelphia and ... customary state and federal grants and other similar programs.” This would seem to contrast it with the plan of the 76ers, which seeks especially generous tax treatment.

The news website Billy Penn, which was first to report the Hoffman bid, had said that the company would seek to fund its proposal through a method called Tax Increment Financing, or TIF. Such arrangements let companies repay their construction debt with some of the new local tax revenue being generated in an area that they helped redevelop.

A person familiar with the Hoffman proposal told The Inquirer that it no longer planned to seek a TIF designation.

Hoffman’s existing projects include the Wharf, a promenade of restaurants, hotels, shops and residences along the Potomac River in Washington. It was among the bidders for the next phase of redevelopment at the Navy Yard, although it was not selected.

The company’s main partners on the Penn’s Landing bid are Gattuso Development Partners, a firm founded by John Gattuso, the former Liberty Property Trust managing director, and Black-owned real estate company the Badger Group, according to the summary.

Gattuso’s previous longtime boss at Liberty, the company’s former chief executive, William P. Hankowsky, is on the DRWC board of directors. Both left Liberty, whose previous projects had included Comcast’s two Center City high-rises, around the time of its acquisition early this year by industrial real estate group Prologis Inc.

A DRWC spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message from The Inquirer Friday asking whether Hankowsky is playing a role in the Penn’s Landing developer’s selection, and if so, whether any steps are being taken by the agency in light of his past work with Gattuso.

The Penn’s Landing bids are in response to an announcement by the DRWC last fall that it was seeking developers to construct residential buildings with ground-floor shops and restaurants north and south of the 12-acre park planned over a section of I-95 between Chestnut and Walnut Streets.

The 7.4-acre northern development site, bounded by Market and Chestnut, has hosted an ice- and roller-skating rink and, until its recent demolition, a hulking cement tower built for an ill-fated sky tram to Camden. The 3.7-acre southern section consists mostly of a parking lot bounded by Spruce and Lombard Streets.

People familiar with the proposal by Sixers owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer have said it will include a 19,000-seat arena nestled among apartments, a hotel, museums, a dozen or so restaurants, a supermarket, and a public school building.

The Sixers are said to be seeking support through a financing mechanism pioneered in Allentown known as a Neighborhood Improvement Zone — NIZ — that has been described as a TIF “on steroids” because it makes state taxes as well as local ones available for use by developers.

Durst has not shared any details of its plan or its funding strategies, citing the DRWC’s request that bidders for the site not publicly discuss their proposals.

Hoffman founder Monty Hoffman confirmed the company’s Penn’s Landing bid in a statement, but provided no further details.

“Hoffman & Associates has an established history of working with neighbors, stakeholders and other community partners to create innovative, inclusive urban communities that deliver value and shape neighborhoods,” he said. “We look forward to continuing to work with DRWC through this process.”