Penn is building a huge new parking garage to support Pennovation Works expansion

The University of Pennsylvania’s expansion of Pennovation Works moved ahead this week as zoning permits were issued for a 10-story parking garage with 858 spaces.

The 23-acre former industrial site on Grays Ferry Avenue lies across the Schuylkill, just south of Penn’s campus and hospital complex.

The university acquired the land in 2010 and last year announced a 455,000-square-foot life sciences research and manufacturing building there with Longfellow Real Estate Partners, a developer of biomedical properties.

The permit calls for the demolition of seven existing buildings to make way for the parking garage, which will also contain 56 bike-parking spaces.

“This parking garage … is being developed to support future on-site expansion, including the new life sciences building,” Jennifer Rizzi, spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in an email. “The buildings that are being taken out are small outbuildings and some warehouse/storage buildings, which have been temporarily utilized in advance of future development.”

The construction of the garage is expected to begin in the first half of 2024, and the project will cost an estimated $40 million.

The Pennovation Works site used to be the home of the DuPont Co.’s Marshall Labs and is notable as the place where the substance that led to the development of Teflon was discovered.

In 2016, the university opened the Pennovation Center, six years after acquiring the land. The building serves as an incubator space for start-ups and for more established businesses like Hershey Co.

Although the site is close to Penn’s campus and hospital complex geographically, it is hemmed in on all sides by high-speed roadways. It is not accessible from any rail transportation lines and presents an unappealing commute by foot or bike, at least until the Schuylkill River Trail extends there.

“The sheer number of parking spots in the garage demonstrates that Penn isn’t being innovative with their planning,” said Chris Aho, who lives nearby and is a member of the urbanist group 5th Square. This is “infrastructure that locks us into the most dangerous and unsustainable mode of transportation that we have.”

The Pennovation Works is similar to the Navy Yard, another former industrial space that has been reworked into office and laboratory space. Both sites are similar in their auto dependency as well: 93% of workers at the Navy Yard commute by car. (Penn did not have statistics on the mode share of commuters to the Pennovation Works.)

“I ride the 64 bus through there weekly, and we regularly wait two to three light cycles just to get past 34th Street because of the congestion,” said Aho. “If anything, this area needs less space for cars and more room for buses and bikes — modes that reduce congestion.”