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Navy Yard opportunity draws Hines, Hoffman & Associates, other big developers

The companies were identified on a short list of five semifinalists for the task of reimagining two separate sections of the former military barracks.

Artist's rendering of PIDC's vision for Navy Yard Historic District Core district, which would combine historic buildings and new construction.
Artist's rendering of PIDC's vision for Navy Yard Historic District Core district, which would combine historic buildings and new construction.Read morePIDC

Nationally focused developers including Houston-based Hines and Washington’s Hoffman & Associates are among those vying for the chance to lead the next stage of rebuilding at South Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, an effort that’s slated to include, for the first time, an around-the-clock residential population.

The companies were identified late last week by the city-government-affiliated Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. on a short list of five semifinalists for the task of reimagining two sections of the former military barracks, which cover 109 acres.

One area is envisioned to become a dense community of apartments, shops, and offices. The other is seen as evolving into an extension of the former base’s existing business-and-research park.

The shortlisted companies are:

  1. Hoffman & Associates, which was named to the list as part of a team involving Gattuso Development Partners and Synterra Partners. Gattuso is led by John Gattuso, who had headed Navy Yard work for the former barrack’s previous main developer, Liberty Property Trust. Synterra had partnered with Liberty on its Navy Yard projects.

  2. Hines, which was a developer of the 1213 Walnut apartment building in Center City.

  3. Ensemble Real Estate Investments of Phoenix, which developed the Navy Yard’s Marriott hotel and has since acquired several other buildings there from Liberty. It is joined on its bid by locally based Mosaic Development Partners, whose projects have included the Eastern Lofts apartments in Brewerytown.

  4. Rhode Island-based Gilbane Development Co., with Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners of Washington.

  5. Trammell Crow Co., a subsidiary of Dallas-based commercial real estate company CBRE.

The short list was culled from a pool of 35 applicants who responded to a request from the PIDC last year to submit proposals for the two sites that it wants to see developed. A final decision is expected later this year, the agency said.

One of the sites is a 12-acre zone northeast of Urban Outfitters Inc.’s headquarters campus that PIDC has earmarked for 1,000 to 1,500 apartments in restored buildings, along with restaurants and shops to serve residents and nearby office and lab workers.

PIDC officials have said the other site, a 97-acre tract once largely occupied by the Henry C. Mustin Naval Air Facility airfield, could support as much as three million square feet of new office, lab, and production space. It could also potentially accommodate residential buildings along its quarter-mile waterfront.