Commentary:
Stating Jefferson’s Case for a Retail/Garage Facility

By Thomas J. Lewis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

As you may be aware, a retail/garage facility with 15,000 square feet of first-floor retail space is planned for Chestnut Street between 9th and 10th streets. It will revitalize the Chestnut Street corridor. Above the retail shops will be a seven-story, 700-car garage facing Chestnut and 10th streets.

While this has been characterized in the press as a Jefferson Hospital project, the $35 million facility will be built, owned and operated by InterPark, a national parking development and operations company, which operates the current open air parking lot that spans the block from 9th to 10th streets between Chestnut and Sansom.

This proposed facility has already been approved by the Philadelphia Planning Commission and is slated to go before the Philadelphia Zoning Board in the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, many in our community continue to disparage it. Few argue against the need for a large modern parking garage to meet the needs of Jefferson’s patients, students and visitors; they just say that it should not be on Chestnut Street.

Here are the reasons why we at Jefferson disagree:

• Without an above-ground parking structure, there will be no new shops and eateries on Chestnut Street between 9th and 10th streets. The corridor, with no significant retail, will remain unappealing for years to come. If this project is not approved as proposed, the developer will maintain the current profitable surface parking lot at that location.

• The developer of the historic Victory Building, located diagonally across 10th Street from the proposed parking garage, proposes to include street level retail space, adding to the sprucing up of Chestnut Street. While a portion of the building is being renovated to provide apartment housing for Jefferson students, the developer has made it clear to anyone willing to listen that the economic viability of the Victory Building renovation with respect to retail space is directly tied to the garage project going forward as designed on Chestnut Street.

• Traffic studies have shown conclusively that access to parking on the Chestnut and 10th Street sides of the garage would be the most convenient for patients and others who visit the hospital or the surrounding medical offices. Critics and opponents of the garage say that it should be built on Sansom Street, which would make access far more difficult and greatly increase the likelihood of traffic congestion for ambulances and cars in and around the Jefferson Emergency Room at 10th and Sansom.

• For convenient access, an above-ground walkway bridge running from the third floor of the parking garage directly into the Gibbon Building is planned. A garage on Chestnut Street is the most economic option for this development for the hospital.

• Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have worked with InterPark, the garage developer, to find the optimum location for a garage. Since an ambulatory care facility is contemplated as part of the University’s future campus plan and that building would be significantly taller than the parking garage, it is better that the taller building be located on the Sansom Street side of the block. This building would extend two-thirds of the way towards 9th Street from 10th Street. On the east side of the block, along 9th Street between Chestnut and Sansom streets, InterPark projects a large office and retail complex, further enhancing the Chestnut Street corridor.

• Also, as part of its continued expansion as a major academic center, the University plans to build a new academic/research facility at 11th and Locust streets, which would require the demolition of our existing garage, further exacerbating the existing shortage of available parking space on or adjacent to the campus. 

• Finally, and maybe most importantly, this is the parking garage InterPark finds is financially viable for them to build. Without zoning approval, everything will remain the same – the profitable open-air parking lot will stay as is and nothing is likely to be built around it – Jefferson will still need additional parking and the local environment will not be improved.

I hope that you agree that the proposed facility is necessary and important for Jefferson and the surrounding community. Please call or email me with any questions or comments. Additionally, if you would like to offer your voice as an advocate for Jefferson’s vital interest in this project as it moves toward the critical approval stage, we could use your support. Thank you.