A new Sixers arena could come with $50 million in community benefits. Critics ask who would gain.

The Rev. Gregory Edwards is skeptical of Philadelphia’s deal with the Sixers for a new downtown basketball arena — including the provision for a $50 million community benefits agreement.

Those accords typically are negotiated between the developer and local community groups, with the builder providing money, amenities, and services to neighborhoods that could be affected by a big project.

But this one, noted the leader of POWER Interfaith, a multiracial network of more than 200 Pennsylvania congregations, was worked out between the mayor and the team’s billionaire owners.

“The voices of everyday Philadelphians have been left out,” Edwards said from the steps of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church earlier this month, surrounded by other clergy.

People questioned how far $50 million could go in a big city. The Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel, called the figure “an insult.” The Rev. Laura Colee of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia demanded to know if the $6 million allocated to City Council was “a slush fund … in exchange for their vote.”

What’s certain is the terms of the CBA, as these agreements are known, will generate debate around the conditions of the $1.55 billion proposal, with City Council set to receive a package of arena-enabling legislation on Thursday.

Project opponents say questions around the specifics of the CBA should cause City Council to slow what looks like a fast track to end-of-year approval.

More than a dozen doctors and nurses announced their opposition to the arena on Tuesday, fearing the impact of game-day traffic, while Jefferson Hospital officials said patient care would not be harmed. On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. and the Washington Square West Civic Association convened a public examination of the CBA, where people objected to the lack of community involvement.

Across the United States, CBAs have proliferated during the last 25 years, despite instances when builders have not kept their pledges or aspects of the agreements have failed.

In their best sense, CBAs allow developers and neighborhoods to settle disputes before the start of what can be complicated approval processes.

When CBAs work effectively, neighborhoods can address wants and needs that are not covered by property regulations, acquiring recreation centers, parks, job training, housing, even childcare arrangements. In exchange, the communities pledge to support the project, which helps developers and local governments save time and money.

“They can make projects better if they’re designed well and implemented well,” said Jovanna Rosen, an assistant professor of public policy at Rutgers University-Camden and the author of Community Benefits: Developers, Negotiations, and Accountability. “It doesn’t always happen.”

The nonprofit news organization Shelterforce, which covers affordable housing and community development, reported in 2021 that “for every successful CBA, there are several others that failed to fulfill their promises.”

Developer Forest City Ratner’s 2003 plan for a new 19,000-seat arena in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the NBA Nets included promises of new jobs and low-income housing. The arena was built, but other goals were not fulfilled. It’s seen by many as “an example of a CBA gone wrong,” Shelterforce wrote.

A 2008 Pittsburgh CBA negotiated around a new Penguins arena allocated part of its $8.3 million to bring a Shop ’n Save store to the Hill District, where the majority-Black and low-income neighborhood had long lacked a full-service supermarket. The grocery store opened in 2013 but closed six years later, and the community group in charge subsequently disbanded, Shelterforce wrote.

The agreements are often legally binding. Although they are usually negotiated between the developer and neighborhood organizations, they can sometimes, as in the Sixers’ case, be made between the developer and a local government.

“CBAs that are signed onto by community stakeholders are inherently more credible,” said Julian Gross, a San Francisco attorney who has negotiated more than 30 such agreements. “Cities generally see these developers as partners that they don’t want to alienate. Powerful sports teams can have a lot of influence.”

Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose 1st District includes the arena site and the adjacent communities of Chinatown and Washington Square West, plans to introduce the legislation Thursday. He has said more must be done to benefit the neighborhoods that surround the proposed 10th and Market Streets location.

“We still have negotiations to do, and working with the development team and administration to make sure those changes that we believe are necessary will be put into either the legislation or the CBA,” he said.

The Sixers say they are approaching “critical deadlines” to achieve their planned 2031 opening. The team referred questions about the CBA to city officials, who declined to answer specific queries.

This month, even as Mayor Cherelle L. Parker touted her administration’s arena agreement with the Sixers to a business group, team co-owner and lead developer David Adelman toured the Camden riverfront with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who wants the team to move there. The mayor learned about the meeting in Camden after it happened.

Parker says the arena deal addresses both neighborhood and citywide needs and provides far more financial benefit to Philadelphia than the agreements that created the Wells Fargo Center, Citizens Bank Park, and Lincoln Financial Field. She and the Sixers say the new venue won’t take a dollar of city tax money, even as it creates new jobs and tax revenue, assists the public schools, and serves as a catalyst for revival of downtrodden Market Street East.

The mayor cited the CBA as jump-starting a new, city-led focus on Chinatown, “to strengthen what is by far a Philadelphia treasure,” when she announced the terms of the arena deal on Sept. 25.

“I want a Chinatown that’s rich and vibrant,” Parker told an audience at the Convention Center. “I want the history and the culture to not just survive, but I want it to thrive.”

She had barely finished speaking before the Save Chinatown Coalition, representing scores of businesses, churches, and community organizations, rejected the agreement.

“This is not at all about helping a neighborhood. It’s about developers getting all they can out of the city,” Vivian Chang, executive director of coalition leader Asian Americans United, said in an interview. “It’s definitely a bad deal for the city, also for Chinatown, but definitely for the city.”

The proposed CBA allocates half the $50 million to neighborhood uses. Other money will go to citywide purposes, including initiatives championed by the mayor. It front-loads the spending, using 70% in the first decade, which Parker said would allow the city to marshal funding to create change.

About $6.3 million would go to Chinatown, the community likely to be most affected. A city-sponsored analysis predicted that half of the neighborhood’s 380 small businesses would lose economically if the arena was built. It warned against gentrifying effects of the project.

Washington Square West, where the civic association recently came out against the project, was not mentioned in the terms of the CBA. The association has set a town-hall meeting with Councilmember Squilla for Monday to ask questions about the legislation.

The Chinatown money includes $3 million for a small-business lending program, $1.6 million for grants to businesses disrupted by arena construction, $1.25 million for expansion of a sidewalk-cleaning and job-training program, and $500,000 for the creation of a master plan to address traffic, parking, and quality-of-life issues.

The CBA’s largest single allocation, $7 million, would help enable year-round classes for Philadelphia public-school students, a signature issue for Parker. An additional $4.5 million would go to the City College for Municipal Employment, a Parker-supported project to train city residents interested in city jobs.

“What’s fair for the community vs. what’s fair for the city as a whole?” asked New York University Law School professor Vicki Been, a former New York City deputy mayor for housing and economic development. “The community should share in the benefits of the development. … But at the end of the day, the community is part of the larger city. The city needs to have a say as well.”

Parker says the CBA funding commitment would remain in place even if the Sixers’ owners were to sell the team. Her administration is working to build support on Council for the arena deal, including the CBA.

“We have to make sure all impacted communities have ways to mitigate,” said Councilmember Nina Ahmad, who wanted more information on the project after being briefed by administration officials this month. “Fifty million dollars over 30 years doesn’t amount to a whole lot.”

Adelman has described the $50 million offering as the biggest in Philadelphia history and among the largest in the country — a claim that is impossible to confirm, given the broad diversity among the scope of agreements.

Experts say it’s definitely a big number. But critics note that $50 million is less than the Sixers pay their star player in a single year.

The NFL’s Buffalo Bills agreed to spend $3 million a year for 30 years to support education and economics in the city and western New York, tied to construction of New Highmark Stadium, scheduled to open in 2026. Recently the team extended the agreement to 33 years and a total of $99 million, the Buffalo-based Investigative Post reported.

While that money seems to dwarf the Sixers’ offer, it actually shows the difficulty of comparing agreements reached in different places for different projects.

The Bills’ money is spread across a wider geographic area. Football stadiums are much bigger than basketball arenas, and they can be more expensive to build.

And the Bills are receiving a massive public subsidy, with local and state taxpayers providing $850 million of the stadium’s $1.7 billion cost.

Gross, the San Francisco attorney, said there’s no formula for determining the amount of money to be contained in a CBA, or for deciding whether that figure is fair or sufficient.

“The public and the media should be looking at the entire package,” he said, “including what it’s going to do to the city over time.”