Redeveloped Navy Yard In Philadelphia Ultimate Live-Work-Play Community
By ERIN FLYNN JAY
The Philadelphia Navy Yard is shaping up to be one of the country’s most successful military base redevelopments.
When completed, the Navy Yard will have seen $6 billion in investments to almost nine million square feet of new life science, commercial, residential, retail, and mixed-use development.
Designed with residents, workers, and the region’s citizens in mind, the plan is taking root across 1,200 acres, with more than 30 acres devoted to park space. It has 6.3 miles of waterfront that is home to over 2,000 trees and wildlife.
The Navy Yard’s most recent master plan was developed by Ensemble/Mosaic, which is a joint venture between Ensemble Real Estate Investments and Mosaic Development Partners.
“The Navy Yard’s master plan is crucial to the Philadelphia region, as it marks the transformation of a once-closed military base into a vibrant, full-time live-work-play destination. Over the past 25 years, PIDC, in partnership with the City and Commonwealth, has transformed the campus into a thriving business hub with 150 companies, 15,000 jobs, and community and recreational amenities,” said Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker.
“The latest master plan, led by development partners Ensemble/Mosaic, will build upon this progress, ultimately adding thousands of additional new jobs and bringing $6 billion in investment, driving inclusive growth and innovation for our city and providing economic opportunities for all Philadelphians.”
Brian Cohen, managing director of Ensemble Investments, said in an interview with The Mortgage Note that former military sites have tremendous potential.
“They’re usually somewhat large areas of land where whether it’s over a century or several decades, development has passed it,” said Cohen. “They were all closed parcels of land with fences and military presence.”
A lot of times, there is an opportunity to reconnect these sites with the urban fabric of surrounding neighborhoods, which can have an economic impact beyond the specific site itself.
“Those connections allow for new places to live, new places to work, but also new places to visit, and you can ultimately see an economic impact beyond just the footprint of that former military institution,” said Cohen. “Those surrounding neighborhoods have been incorporated and connected in a way that didn’t exist previously.”
There was not one particular development that Ensemble/Mosaic modeled the Navy Yard from.
“Every site – whether it’s a single building or a 1,200-acre Navy Yard – has different opportunities, different constraints, and looking at precedent projects, the Navy Yard started as a true redevelopment in the early 2000s,” said Cohen. “That initial phase of redevelopment was really focused on creating economic development from an employment standpoint for the city of Philadelphia.”
Although the Navy Yard is not modeled after one particular past project, they did consider what was successful in other areas and tried to think about that in the context of the opportunities and constraints they had at the Navy Yard.
“An elevated I-95 somewhat disconnects the Navy Yard from the rest of the city as a constraint, but there is also a six-mile waterfront, which was a pretty unique opportunity,” said Cohen.
Ensemble/Mosaic’s initial phase was a 135,000-square-foot lab building completed at the end of 2023. A 614-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail is under construction right now and will be welcoming residents in August or September of 2025.
A 4-star plus hotel and spa which they anticipate to break ground later this year is expected to be completed in 2026.
Global leadership from bioMérieux and Philadelphia dignitaries commemorated the opening of the company’s Molecular Genomic Innovation Center at the Navy Yard on Sept. 18.
The company’s new 32,000-square-foot facility will include a lab, office, and manufacturing spaces to produce food safety tests.
“That’s the first of many life science labs and advanced manufacturing buildings that we intend to develop at the Navy Yard. Our plan contemplates about 3 to 3.5 million square feet more of that space over the next 15 years,” said Cohen.
According to the 2022 Navy Yard Plan, to ensure there is a well-trained workforce, the Ensemble/Mosaic TNY Empowerment Foundation was created. Capitalized with an initial $1 million contribution by Ensemble/Mosaic, the foundation will sustain itself through the partnership’s contribution of 2% of net operating income from each project it develops at the Navy Yard, according to a press release.