Comcast Spectacor envisions a $2.5 billion transformation of the South Philly sports complex

Comcast Spectacor executives have launched a plan that, if fully realized, would transform some of the vast parking lots at the South Philadelphia stadium district into a vibrant sports-and-entertainment complex featuring hotels, residences, restaurants, shops and a 5,500-seat performance stage.

The project would take at least a decade and cost about $2.5 billion.

It would align Philadelphia with a national trend that’s seen major sports venues become only a part of much-larger projects, as team owners embrace real estate development as a new way to grow revenue.

It also would make the sports complex, mostly barren except on game days, much more of a destination and neighborhood. The project would connect in yet-to-be-determined ways to the green space of nearby FDR Park and the campus of the Navy Yard, which recently broke ground on its first new housing in 30 years.

“A new era for South Philadelphia,” said Daniel Hilferty, chairman and CEO of Comcast Spectacor.

The company is the local sports and entertainment arm of communications giant Comcast and the owner of the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, home to the National Hockey League team and to the National Basketball Association’s Sixers. Comcast Spectacor and the tenant Sixers are battling over the NBA team’s plan to build its own Center City arena and move there in 2031.

The company’s plan includes room for an arena that would eventually replace the Wells Fargo Center, which recently concluded a $400 million top-to-bottom renovation. The future arena would go on what is now a parking lot between the center and Lincoln Financial Field.

The Sixers say the Wells Fargo renovation won’t significantly extend the life of the building, which opened in 1996, and have declined Comcast Spectacor’s invitations to join as partners in a reimagined sports complex.

Sixers billionaire co-owner and lead arena developer David Adelman said he knew little about Comcast Spectacor’s plan for the sports complex.

“I think certainly wearing my Sixers ownership hat, I’d like to understand how it affects me as a tenant in the building,” he said. “So we’ll have a lot of questions.”

But Adelman reiterated that the team would not return to the Wells Fargo Center when its lease expired, saying, “The Sixers will not play in South Philadelphia in 2031 in any way, shape or form in any building, new, old, whatever.”

Comcast Spectacor says its development plan has been in the works for some time and is not a response to the Sixers’ intention to leave.

The company shared its vision for the mixed-use development at a Jan. 23 meeting with the sports complex Special Services District, a neighborhood organization funded by Comcast Spectacor, the Eagles and the Phillies, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported this month.

In 2019, Comcast Spectacor and the Baltimore-based Cordish Companies had unrealized plans to develop an $80 million office building and retail complex adjacent to the Xfinity Live! sports bar, the Business Journal wrote.

In 2012, the two companies had partnered to create Xfinity Live! on the site where the Spectrum once stood. Cordish opened the nearby 12-story, 208-room Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia in 2021.

In describing Comcast Spectacor’s aspirations to The Inquirer, Hilferty cited sports and entertainment developments in other cities, such as Inglewood, Calif., where Hollywood Park is adjacent to SoFi Stadium, home of the National Football League Rams and Chargers. In St. Louis, Major League Baseball’s Cardinals opened Ballpark Village, a dining and entertainment district at Busch Stadium.

Comcast Spectacor executives also have followed the creation of the Battery, which surrounds Truist Park, home of the MLB Atlanta Braves. That complex features boutiques, restaurants, hotels, residences and corporate offices.

“It’s a vibrant, morning, noon and night community, around a sports district,” Wells Fargo Center president Phil Laws said last fall. “Venues have maximized what they can do in their four walls and they’re looking to expand.”

The aspirations of the master plan call for an estimated 2,000 residential units, 500 rooms across different hotels, and 10,000 parking spaces in garages to rise on parts of the sea of asphalt that now comprises one of the largest parking areas in North America, about 22,000 spaces.

Game-day traffic jams at the sports complex irritate fans, but the plentiful parking is a big reason that so many people drive there. Comcast Spectacor says that across all events, 85% of guests drive to the 21,000-seat Wells Fargo Center.

Comcast Spectacor executives described their vision of a project undertaken in two phases, the first on property under their control, ranging from Broad Street to 11th Street, and Pattison Avenue south to the Wells Fargo Center.

On that ground would go the performance venue, a hotel, retail shops and restaurants, and new parking. Groundbreaking for the concert hall and retail space would take place in mid-2025 with an expected opening in 2027. The hotel would open a year later.

The first phase would start this year with a $12 million renovation of Xfinity Live!, which would include enhancing the outdoor plaza and adding new gathering areas and terraces. The bar would remain open during the work, which is expected to be done by early 2026.

The second phase is more aspirational and would require a much larger conversation and agreement with multiple parties, including city and state agencies, surrounding neighborhoods, and local organizations including the Phillies and Eagles, who play at Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field.

Phase One would be privately funded by Comcast Spectacor and a number of investment partners. Funding for the second phase has yet to be determined.

If undertaken, the second phase could include the residences, a second hotel, more retail, green space, offices, and a 10,000-space parking garage.