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A new hotel is planned for the Philadelphia Mills area in Northeast Philadelphia

A Marriott is planned for a parking lot near the Philadelphia Mills mall.

A rendering of the proposed 25,000-square-foot hotel planned for a shopping center that used to be part of the Franklin Mills complex.
A rendering of the proposed 25,000-square-foot hotel planned for a shopping center that used to be part of the Franklin Mills complex.Read moreMussachio Architects

A new hotel is coming to Northeast Philadelphia near an underutilized shopping center that used to be part of the Franklin Mills complex.

The 84,703-square-foot hotel is under development by Huntington Valley-based Sant Properties, which owns the shopping center. The hotel would include 100 rooms for guests.

“There hasn’t been much interest in retail [in recent years], especially larger box retail,” said Ron Patterson, a zoning attorney with Klehr Harrison who is representing Sant Properties.

“So they started to try and reappropriate the uses” in the shopping center,” Patterson said.

The shopping center used to be part of the Franklin Mills — now known as Philadelphia Mills — complex, which is the largest mall in the city limits.

“At one time, it was all part of [Franklin Mills], but parcels were sold off long ago,” said Patterson. “So it’s within the Franklin Mills Mall complex, but not part of the mall and not owned by people who own Franklin Mills.”

Simon Property Group, the most successful mall holder in the country, owns Philadelphia Mills. But the property was in distress even before the pandemic. A Simon’s press representative did not respond to a request for comment.

This shopping center owned by Sant Properties has been diversifying its offerings in the area, opening a standalone CVS drug store and a car wash in the area instead.

A zoning variance is required for the project because the land is zoned for purely auto-oriented commercial development. The project plans, drafted by Mussachio Architects of Williamsville, N.Y., list 1,785 parking spaces.

The project was conceived last year but has been on hold since late 2022. Patterson said the hotel is being built for Marriott.

There is not a clear timeline for construction, but given that the project does not require any demolition or property transfers, a standard 18- to 24-month completion is possible.

The project will go before the city’s advisory Civic Design Review committee on Aug. 1 because of its scale.

*Correction: An earlier version of this article listed the wrong square footage of the hotel.