The ethics board has fined the 76ers’ lobbying firm for failing to disclose it was promoting the arena proposal
The real estate company didn’t disclose efforts to influence city officials on a proposal for a Center City arena.
A lobbying firm working to promote the 76ers’ plan to build a new arena in Center City has admitted to filing incomplete disclosure reports regarding its efforts to influence city officials about the project last year and agreed to pay $4,000 in fines with the Philadelphia Board of Ethics, the board announced Tuesday.
CBL Real Estate, which a spokesperson said is the lobbying arm of the team’s development company 76 Devcorp, agreed to a settlement with the board that has it admitted to making omissions in two city lobbying reports from 2022. The firm has since filed amended reports with a new subject matter — “Sports Arena” — that show it last year lobbied members of Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration, Council President Darrell L. Clarke, and Councilmember Mark Squilla over the project.
“We are pleased this matter involving an administrative error has been resolved and look forward to continuing to educate the public about the benefits of 76 Place — a privately-funded project that will create thousands of jobs, vibrancy and a positive economic impact for a critically important part of our city,” 76 Devcorp spokesperson Dave Sholler said in a statement.
The ethics board fines are the latest in a string of City Hall controversies caused by the team’s ambitions to build 76 Place, a proposed arena complex and mixed-use development the team says could revitalize struggling East Market Street.
» READ MORE: How an under-the-radar parking garage bill sparked the first City Hall dust-up over the 76ers’ arena proposal
Many community leaders and advocates for Chinatown have opposed the project, saying it would lead to the displacement of their neighborhood, which borders the proposed site at 10th and Market Streets. The team and city officials have vowed not to take action on the proposal until they get input from the community and studied its potential effects on the surrounding area.
But late last year, the team appears to have tried to sneak legislation through Council that would have facilitated the construction of the arena by striking Filbert Street between 10th and 11th Streets from the street grid.
That legislation fell apart after advocates for Chinatown got wind of the street-striking language, which was attached to an otherwise routine bill refinancing a parking garage, and pressured Squilla, who sponsored the bill, into removing the provision.
The episode helped to undermine the 76ers’ credibility in Chinatown, and community groups have since lined up against the proposal.
During that controversy, it would have been all but impossible for the public to know who was lobbying Council on behalf of the team. Neither the 76ers organization nor 76 Devcorp filed lobbying reports in 2022, and it is not obvious from CBL Real Estate’s lobbying registration that they have ties to the team.
The team also appears to have attempted to hide its significant financial support for Jeff Brown’s unsuccessful campaign in this year’s Democratic mayoral primary race.
A sports team anonymously gave $250,000 to the nonprofit arm of For A Better Philadelphia, a “dark money” political action committee that backed Brown, and an entity “controlled by one of the sports team’s collaborators” gave another $150,000, according to a lawsuit filed by the ethics board. The contributions were made in a way that would have prevented the public from knowing the identities of the donors had the ethics board not revealed them in its suit against the group.
The lawsuit did not name the 76ers, but The Inquirer confirmed that the other major professional sports teams in the city were not involved and that a lawyer for the PAC is also working on the arena proposal.
Brown ended up finishing fifth in last month’s Democratic primary. But the team may not be out of luck in City Hall just yet.
Former Councilmember Cherelle Parker, who has spoken positively about the proposal and was backed by construction trade unions that support it, won the primary and is likely to become the next mayor in January.