Walter D’Alessio, Philadelphia’s master builder and civic leader, has died at 90

For decades, Walter D’Alessio was one of the most influential people in Philadelphia, even though he never held elected office.

As a leader of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. (PIDC) in the 1960s and 1970s, he had a hand in many generational projects. From the creation of Society Hill to the construction of the commuter tunnel that smoothed Regional Rail access across the city, Mr. D’Alessio helped shape modern Philadelphia.

Mr. D’Alessio, 90, died Monday at his home in Society Hill.

“A lot of people thought of him as a Robert Moses-like figure, although a lot less controversial,” said John Grady, who served as head of PIDC in the 2010s. “He was very influential in terms of organizing activity, building relationships, and ensuring that the capacity of a place like PIDC was valuable to both business and government as a place to get things done.”

Mr. D’Alessio made his name as a city urban planner and, in the latter part of his career, he served on the boards of many of the most influential institutions in Philadelphia.

He was born on the other side of Pennsylvania, in the tiny borough of Mars outside Pittsburgh. His family lived on a large poultry farm on the outskirts of the town, and as a youth, he helped out in a variety of unglamorous tasks like shoveling chicken excrement.

Mr. D’Alessio eventually got his undergraduate degree in landscape architecture from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in city planning from the University of Illinois. He served as a public planner in a variety of locales including Akron, Ohio, and Wichita, Kan., before arriving in Philadelphia in 1960 — inspired in part by master planner Ed Bacon’s profile on the front page of Time magazine.

Bacon’s Redevelopment Authority ended up hiring Mr. D’Alessio to be the project coordinator for what was then called “Washington Square East,” now known as Society Hill.

The effort sought to raze the most deteriorated housing and replace it with modern homes, while fixing up historic properties that could be salvaged. The plan Mr. D’Alessio helmed was meant to create a neighborhood that would attract high income residents at a time when the city’s population was being hollowed out by white flight and deindustrialization.

As a result of the effort, the neighborhood that became known as Society Hill was transformed from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia during the 1950s to one of its wealthiest in 1970. It was seen as a model of urban revitalization at the time, especially because many properties and some residents were kept in place, although today the effort can be seen as a classic case of gentrification given the displacement of the neighborhood’s poorest residents.

Mr. D’Alessio rose through the ranks of the Redevelopment Authority under Bacon and eventually became the executive director for two years. He took the lead on projects like the creation of Independence Mall and redevelopment work along North Broad Street and around Temple University.

Then in 1972, as the federal money that backed many of the Redevelopment Authority’s ambitions dried up, he made the transition to leading PIDC. Formed by the Chamber of Commerce and the city government in the 1950s, the quasi-public economic development agency successfully fought to keep many industrial jobs in the city limits.

“We’ve obviously had a decline over these years, but it would be kind of frightening to contemplate what it might have been if those opportunities weren’t presented to industry to relocate within the city,” Mr. D’Alessio told historian Guian A. McKee for a 2008 book.

During Mr. D’Alessio’s time as president, PIDC began focusing more on the future of Center City.

After the 1976 outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel on South Broad Street, the future of the iconic and centrally located building was uncertain until the agency purchased it for redevelopment. He was also key to the development of The Gallery shopping mall on East Market Street and the former Aramark office tower that now houses Thomas Jefferson health care.

As part of that East Market revitalization push, Mr. D’Alessio pushed for a commuter tunnel underneath Center City, which unified the sprawling Regional Rail system that the public sector had assumed from a tangle of failing private companies. The tunnel rationalized the system, allowing train traffic to flow through the city and bringing connectivity to the previously competing rail lines.

“As head of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. [Mr. D’Alessio] actually engineered all the big public works and other development projects [Mayor Frank] Rizzo liked to brag about,” Inquirer columnist David Boldt wrote in 1991 to suggest Mr. D’Alessio as a possible replacement for Rizzo after his death on the mayoral campaign trail.

But Mr. D’Alessio never had any interest in running for office. Instead, after leading PIDC for 10 years, he stepped down in 1982 and became board chair for the next four decades.

D’Alessio also served as Brandywine Realty Trust’s board chair for over two decades, board chair of Independence Blue Cross for 11 years, was lead director of the electric company Exelon’s board for 12 years (and served on PECO’s as well), and chairman of the board of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce for two years.

In this latter stage of his career, Mr. D’Alessio was a hugely influential figure and a connector between City Hall and the private sector.

“He enjoyed a very long reputation of being apolitical in a political environment,” said Bill Hankowsky, who served as head of PIDC in the late 1980s and 1990s and a major commercial real estate actor. “He knew everybody and was friends with everybody. But no one viewed him as Frank Rizzo’s guy or Wilson Goode’s guy.”

As the chair of PIDC’s board from the 1980s through the 2010s, he still took an active role in projects like the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the transformation of the largely shuttered Navy Yard into an employment hub. While on the board of Brandywine, he advised the company as it shifted their focus into the city and developed Cira Centre, the first office building west of the Schuylkill.

“I always referred to him as the invisible hand of Walt,” said Jerry Sweeney, president and CEO of Brandywine, the largest office landlord in the city. “He had so many connection points, had such great history and experience, and he provided great advice to me and a lot of other business leaders of my generation.”

In addition to all his board roles, after exiting the leadership of PIDC, Mr. D’Alessio founded a leading commercial lending business in the city, which was merged with Legg Mason Real Estate Services where he then served as CEO. He then helped steer the company through a series of acquisitions and, eventually, its sale to NorthMarq Corporate Solutions in 2003, where he then served as senior managing director.

Throughout his life, Mr. D’Alessio also enjoyed gardening, tinkering with fancy cars, vacationing in the Poconos, and traveling in Italy.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara Chance; daughter, Jennifer Rodier; son, Michael; four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Gertrude Weidman.

Services will be private, but a celebration of his life and legacy will be held in the fall.