How an under-the-radar parking garage bill sparked the first City Hall dust-up over the 76ers’ arena proposal

The first City Hall dust-up over the 76ers’ plan to build an arena in Center City began with a seemingly unrelated piece of legislation over the refinancing of a downtown parking facility.

The bill, introduced by City Councilmember Mark Squilla on behalf of Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration, includes a provision requiring the garage operator to agree to potential future striking, or removing from the city grid, of Filbert Street between 10th and 11th Streets, in the area that the 76ers hope to open a stadium in 2031.

Chinatown advocates who oppose the Sixers’ proposal because they fear it will displace residents and businesses in their neighborhood got wind of the under-the-radar bill and signed up to testify against it at a Finance Committee meeting Wednesday morning. They told lawmakers they feel betrayed the city would make moves to help build the arena before a public engagement process was completed.

» READ MORE: Chinatown groups unite to protect the neighborhood as Sixers plan a new arena

In response, Squilla amended the bill to remove the language about striking Filbert Street. Squilla said the Kenney administration included that provision in the bill and that it is unnecessary for the refinancing of the garage.

He said he asked administration officials about the street-striking provision prior to Wednesday’s hearing.

“The answer was that, ‘Maybe if there’s future projects in the area, that it would allow it to move forward.’ I said, ‘Then we need to take that out,’” Squilla said in an interview. “My main concern with this was to make sure that it’s not seen as any type of legislation that pertains to an arena or a street-striking because it doesn’t.”

But the mayor’s team appears to be pointing the finger back at Squilla.

“The language of section 2 was added to the bill after it got to the Councilman’s office,” Kenney spokesperson Kevin Lessard said, referring to the part of the bill that allowed for the future striking of Filbert Street.

In response to Lessard’s statement, Squilla laid out the chain of events in his own statement. After he received the parking garage bill from the administration, “outside attorneys who were working closely with the Administration” suggested adding the Filbert Street language, which “was sent to my office at the last minute,” Squilla said.

“My office transmitted it to the Chief Clerk for introduction to meet the deadline [for filing bills that can be passed before the end of the year], regrettably without my review, as I believed the language was agreed upon by the Administration,” he said.

76 Devcorp, the basketball team’s development arm, acknowledged that the bill was on its radar and that changes to Filbert Street are needed to build the arena.

“As we continue to explore plans for the proposed arena, we are coordinating with stakeholders in collaboration with the City to outline what is necessary to make this project possible — which would include changes to Filbert Street,” 76 Devcorp spokesperson Nicole Gainer said in a statement. “Our understanding is that this bill simply keeps the option open for changes that would still need approval in the future.”

Gainer said 76 Devcorp will be conducting “additional outreach so that we can share more information about the project and receive feedback from stakeholders before any plans and proposals are made final.”

Those promises aren’t reassuring to longtime Chinatown resident Coleen Young, who testified Wednesday and criticized what she described as “a secretive back-door deal to facilitate the groundwork for the proposed arena.”

“Striking the language that would have helped enable the closure of Filbert Street from this bill only happened once Chinatown leaders found out about that clause,” Young said. “The majority of the Chinatown community is unequivocally opposed to the arena and to secret negotiations about us without us.”

» READ MORE: What we know about the Sixers’ plans for a new Center City arena

The primary intent of the bill is to help restructure debt being carried by the financially distressed parking garage, which was built in 1983 with the city’s help to ensure adequate parking for the JC Penney store in the now-defunct Gallery shopping mall. The changes that the bill would allow for, including extending the lease by 10 years, would help ensure the city can collect on about $12 million it is owed by the garage operator, Parametric.

The Finance Committee approved the bill and the amendment removing the Filbert Street language in unanimous voice votes, sending it to the Council floor. It could be approved on final passage as soon as Dec. 15, Council’s final meeting of the year.

Staff writer Jake Blumgart contributed to this article.