The mayor and labor unions touted the economic promise of the $1.3 billion project.
…the Philadelphia City Council on Thursday approved a $1.3 billion plan to build a downtown basketball arena next to Chinatown for their hometown 76ers that had been championed by Mayor Cherelle Parker.
The votes to ratify a package of bills authorizing the Sixers to proceed, mostly by a 12-5 margin, capped more than two years of wrangling over an 18,500-seat arena that supporters said would create thousands of construction jobs, particularly for Black and Hispanic residents, and help to revitalize the Center City neighborhood.
The vote also represented a signature win for Ms. Parker at the end of her first year in office, as well as her allies in the building trades unions, who were among the project’s most vocal proponents. She is expected to sign the legislation before the end of the year.
“All of Philadelphia will benefit from this project,” Ms. Parker said at a City Hall news conference after the vote. “We are about to put the next generation of skilled workers to work right here.”
Read the full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/us/philadelphia-76ers-arena-chinatown.html
