April 8–15, 1999

cover story

On the Waterfronts

Can a partnership between Philadelphia and Camden turn the Delaware River, rife with vacant waterfront lots and half-finished projects—into a major economic contender?

by Jen Darr

There's a big-name city trying to reinvigorate its downtown with splashy retail outlets and urban entertainment complexes. It suffered population loss in the last few decades, as did many cities across the country. To stop the flight to the suburbs, this city's leaders are negotiating stadium deals and gearing up to build a history museum where the river licks the land. Plans have been in the works to reconnect the downtown to the riverfront, which is now cut off by a highway. And no one seems to agree on what to do with the riverfront.

It's a different story on the other side of the river, in another city and another state.

Long ago, it was also a thriving town, but the mass exodus to the suburbs hurt this hamlet. Its historic buildings were left to rot; drugs, crime and prostitution had become the main business activities.

But in the last decade, this little city by the river was thrown a life preserver when developers saw dollar signs in its neglected waterfront.

Build office towers, residential buildings, entertainment centers, an aquarium, movie theaters.

Promote the two cities' waterfronts as one destination, and you have an even greater asset.

Sounds familiar. But it ain't Philadelphia and Camden.

It's Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky, which are separated by the Ohio River. And it's an example officials on both sides of the Delaware River are taking seriously.

Today, when you walk east down Market Street from City Hall, you can see Camden's RCA Nipper building and Camden's City Hall. When you get a little closer to the water, you see a clutter of buildings and mounds of dirt on the Philadelphia side; on the other side, in Camden, the bright white dome atop the aquarium, the Blockbuster-Sony Entertainment Centre, and the Michael Graves-designed One Port Center office building surrounded by plots of empty land.

But all that's supposed to change.

On the Philadelphia side, the Simon Property Group will break ground for its $175 million entertainment complex this fall. The project, which is expected to be completed by 2001, will include: a garage that can accommodate 2,400 cars; a new amphitheater to replace the current Great Plaza; a 20-screen AMC theater; The American Experience, a changing high-tech history exhibit; about 80,000 square feet of themed restaurants; an IMAX theater; an ice-skating rink; and big-name retail such as NikeTown and F.A.O. Schwartz. The Please Touch Museum will also move to the area, to a 100,000-square-foot plot.

		Two sides of the same river, Camden (left) and Philadelphia (right). photos: Eddy Palumbo

Farther down the river, Bart Blatstein, owner of the Riverview Plaza and the parcel of land across Columbus Boulevard on the waterfront, has plans for expansion, including an outdoor driving range, an entertainment center and a GameWorks.

Over in Camden, the Cooper's Ferry Development Association (CFDA), which was created in 1984 by the three principal owners of waterfront land—Campbell's, the City of Camden, and RCA—has been busy with its own plans.

Ground was broken in January for a $7 million Camden Children's Garden (designed by Philadelphia's Venturi, Scott Brown architecture firm) that will surround the State Aquarium on the waterfront. An additional $8 million will be pumped into aquarium enhancements. A museum of recorded sound, called Soundwave, is planned. A $100 million participatory sports and entertainment complex, proposed by Kravco of King of Prussia, is in the works. A minor league baseball stadium will be constructed, and the Delaware River Port Authority hopes to construct another office tower next to its current headquarters at One Port.

A $23 million aerial tram (paid for by the DRPA), which will cross the river and drop visitors off at the Simon Property Group's entertainment center, is scheduled to be completed by 2000. Cooper's Ferry Development Association is planning to construct light rail which will bring visitors from Trenton and other points in New Jersey. And a $7.9 million barge-based sound and light show will debut this New Year's Eve.

All of these plans on both sides of the river involve so many interests—the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania state government, the Penn's Landing Corporation, the Simon Property Group, Blatstein, the City of Camden, New Jersey state government, the Cooper's Ferry Development Association, Kravco, the DRPA—it's hard to imagine a bustling waterfront will ever come to fruition.

Plans have been in the works for Penn's Landing for decades. In 1982, when Bill Green was mayor, his city planning department published a comprehensive central riverfront plan, which included developments such as Riverwalk, a fancy three-mile promenade winding from Washington Avenue to Penn Treaty Park. "The goal for the central riverfront," the report stated, "is to create a place to live and work, to shop and dine, to be entertained and have fun."

But one thing that has been missing from all these years of talk about family entertainment, fun on the waterfront, mixed-use development and premier destinations was the idea of connecting the two cities' waterfronts, of making them one destination. It was a gross oversight. How can you promote a waterfront when the view of the other side is vacant buildings, empty fields and a prison?

"There's never really been a concerted effort to link the two together," says Stephen Mullin, Philadelphia's director of commerce.

But when the folks at Cooper's Ferry Development Association were making their plans, they looked to other cities to see if two waterfronts, in two states, in two cities, could actually work.

Cincinnati's riverfront, which used to be a thriving produce market and a hub for steamboat activity, will soon be a bustle of tourism and activity—that is, if city leaders can agree on plans.

Some waterfront development is already under way, or in the planning stages: The $404 million Paul Brown Stadium for the Bengals is currently under construction; the planned $297 million ballpark for the Reds is being designed; a 30-acre recreational park is planned; and a series of parking garages, with a total of 7,000 spaces, will be constructed to meet the demand from the new stadiums. A National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Museum will be built between the two new stadiums, commemorating the area's role in the Underground Railroad.

Throughout the process, the Cincinnati Riverfront Commission and the city government have held a series of public forums for input.

"Cincinnati has always been very strong with its planning and citizen participation. Our city council puts a lot a weight on how the community feels," says Steven Kurtz, of Cincinnati's Planning Department.

But, as of last month, no one could agree on anything. Some want development to be "fun and exciting," some say the projects should "connect with the water," some have emphasized the need to focus on Cincinnati's heritage and history, and others want "exquisite and unique recreational spaces."

Kurtz says Cincinnati needs the right mix to bring people out of the suburbs and back downtown. With additional attractions on the waterfront—provided the highway problem is fixed—"one area will help serve the other," he says. "We don't want the downtown and riverfront to compete with each other."

Covington already has built a $90 million, 11-acre office center and tower, called RiverCenter, on the riverfront, which includes a hotel, street-level retail, a 7-acre waterfront park, a 900-car parking center, and a floating facility called Covington Landing with restaurants, shops, entertainment and riverboat excursions. Covington recently built the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, is working on a new county courthouse, two hotels—the list goes on. Future projects include a riverwalk, more commercial office space and residential development.

All this waterside development has led to increased efforts to rebuild Covington's historic downtown area.

Newport, which is also across the Ohio from Cincinnati, but separated from Covington by the smaller Licking River, is poised to build an aquarium and an IMAX theater—two attractions Cincinnati had hoped to snag. This summer the town hopes to complete the construction of a millennium monument, a 1,000-foot tower. Newport, too, has turned its sights inward to revitalize the once-ailing city.

Nineteen years ago, the Department of Housing and Urban Development cited Covington as the most distressed city in the United States, and all Newport was known for was its prostitution and girlie bars.

In the 1850s, Cincinnati was one of the main ports for Ohio River steamboat operations. Steamboats brought $65 million worth of imports into the city every year. More than 20 steamboats would come and go every day. But Cincinnati and the surrounding counties are in a flood plain, and the city has all too often been hit with disastrous floods, such as the century's worst in 1937, when the river reached 79.9 feet and left one-fifth of the city underwater. Suburban flight, which began in the '50s, contributed to Cincinnati's slow demise. And in the 1960s, much of the city's old riverfront structures were torn down.

In Covington, the river was also the lifeblood of the community. Covington's banks were lined with a cotton factory, a distillery, a rolling mill, a coal yard, an ice manufacturing company and stately Southern homes. But those same disastrous floods continually hit the town and destroyed buildings. Postwar suburban flight left Covington lifeless as well.

"It was in the '80s when we began to see a transformation," says Mike Hammons, president of Forward Quest, a nonprofit planning group funded by businesses in both Cincinnati and Covington.

He cites strong leadership as the sole reason for Covington's and Newport's rebirths. "People created a vision of what [Newport and Covington] should be and developers took risks building projects in the inner city—they've proven that it was a justifiable risk."

While Cincinnati was trying to figure out what to do with the highway separating the waterfront and downtown, Covington and Newport were busy reconstructing their towns.

Cincinnati city officials never thought to look across the river. When they did, they saw that Covington and Newport were way ahead.

	The Banks of The Ohio: The split waterfromt of Cincinnati and Covington.
			photo: Courtesy of The Cincinnati Enquirer

"We have unfortunately developed our riverfronts independently, and somewhat in competition with each other," says Kurtz.

But times have changed. Many now agree that the three cities' waterfronts need to be marketed and developed as a common area, to complement each other.

Hammons says the government and business entities involved in all the projects were very cooperative: "The single economic development office [the Tri-County Economic Development Office] kept us from fighting among ourselves," he says.

"Initially, Cincinnati entertainment businesses competed with Kentucky. Covington and Newport have taken the lead in trying to market it as one key destination area and develop a certain critical mass," Hammons adds.

"We need to continue that momentum. In order for that to happen, you have to have healthy, vibrant neighborhoods."

When William Penn landed here on the Welcome in 1682 he recognized the waterfront's value. When he and Thomas Holme began building their grand experiment (the first grid city in the United States), they stipulated that the land between Front Street and the Delaware River not be divided into lots for private use, but instead used as a common area from which the public could benefit.

But Penn also saw the commercial significance of the waterfront. He once wrote, in a letter to the Free Society of Traders, that he wanted to build his town where "it is most navigable, high, dry and healthy; that is, where most ships may best ride of deepest draught of water, if possible to load or unload at the bank or key side, without boating or lightering of it."

Penn's wishes for public space did not hold up long; Philadelphia's port grew in the early 1700s, and the existing waterfront was subsequently built out to accommodate this growth. By 1750, Philadelphia's port trade was greater than New York's, and 25 years later, it was the foremost port in the country.

In 1835, 10 years after the Erie Canal was built, Philadelphia had lost its first-place position to New York. Philadelphia leaders came up with plans to improve the waterfront, and eventually built Delaware Avenue and constructed rail lines leading to the riverfront.

Philadelphia's port regained some of its prominence after it modernized its rotting piers in the early 1900s. But the decline of the central riverfront district (which includes Penn's Landing) came in the middle of the century, in the 1950s, when two container terminals were built outside of the district—Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and Tioga Marine Terminal. The new trend was containerized cargo; the demand for the type of cargo handled at the piers had declined and many piers became vacant. Finally, to make room for Interstate 95 (which was completed in 1980), many of the warehouses that were used throughout the central district's shipping heyday were demolished.

Philadelphia and Camden were once vitally linked. In the late 1600s, ferries brought livestock, dairy products and agricultural goods between Camden and Philadelphia. Before the Ben Franklin Bridge opened on July 1, 1926, 15 million people crossed the Delaware River by ferry, says the CFDA's president and CEO Thomas Corcoran. "It was the only way to get up and down the eastern seaboard. You would get off a train in Camden, get on a ferry, and get on another train in Philadelphia."

There was also a tremendous amount of pedestrian traffic that crossed the river every day. By 1809, seven ferry systems operated from Camden to the original site of the navy yard on League Island and to different points on both shores, says Corcoran.

Camden was actually a "destination," according to the CFDA. "Hotels, taverns, posh pleasure gardens and imposing residences grew up beside and nearby the ferry sites… They came in droves to enjoy the walkways, fountains, goldfish ponds…" according to a CFDA brochure.

In the late 1800s, the construction of roadways and railroads brought the Victor Talking Machine Company (which became RCA), Campbell Soup Company, Eastbrook Pens, the New York Shipbuilding Corporation and other businesses to Camden. Walt Whitman wrote poetry there. Camden could take credit for being the place where the recipe for condensed soup was perfected (whether that's good or bad) and where recorded sound was invented. By the 1920s, Camden was called "the biggest little city in the world."

Then the Ben Franklin Bridge was built.

"Once the bridge was completed and hailed as a great civic accomplishment, that was the death—long-term—of the ferry system," says Corcoran. And, arguably, of the Camden-Philadelphia connection.

The last ferry crossed the Delaware on March 31, 1952.

But it wasn't just the bridge that obliterated the Camden-Philadelphia connection. "As waterfront manufacturing centers declined in employment—in the navy yard on your side, on our side Campbell's Soup and RCA—and ferry transportation died off, the psychological links, the emotional links and the economic links declined as well, to a point where there was very little interchange between Camden and Philadelphia," Corcoran explains.

Other factors include the construction of more convenient transportation routes around Camden and suburban flight.

In the following decades, Camden sunk—very low. The riots of the 1960s and '70s didn't help its reputation much. Neither did the widespread fires of the '80s. Drug dealers took over and now the place is best known as a town full of dilapidated houses, with a nice college and a place to see exotic fish and outdoor concerts.

Though the ferry service was reinstituted on March 31, 1992—40 years after its last run—that wasn't what spawned the Camden-Philadelphia reunion.

"I think it was sometime in the '80s, when Philadelphia brought in Disney to look at the waterfront," says DRPA spokesperson Joe Diemer. Disney asked about that empty waterfront on the other side, he says, and suggested Philadelphia consider a two-sided waterfront.

But even more important, Diemer says, was the lighting of the Ben Franklin Bridge in 1986. "It had an enormous impact."

According to Diemer, a group from Philadelphia proposed the idea and funded it. The logic behind the project, says Diemer, was that if the bridge were lit up, it would grab the attention of developers.

"I absolutely believe that on either side, the weaker link harms both sides of the river," says the Commerce Department's Mullin. "All those interests, they are all interlocking. It's not like this is all separate.… It's not like they are the Serbians and we are the Albanians."

Pennsylvania state government is mainly interested in what happens on the Philadelphia side, says Gov. Tom Ridge's spokesperson Tim Reeves. "But we have learned a hundred different ways that you can grow best yourself when you grow with others."

And a combined waterfront could bring in a lot more visitors, and a lot more money to both sides.

Both waterfronts, taken together, would "overshadow anything else on the east coast because of the market that surrounds us," says Mike Rubin, president of MRA International, a firm that creates and develops entertainment complexes (which has also had a hand in Penn's Landing development). "Go out beyond this area an hour and it's the third-largest market—much bigger than Baltimore."

"What's really unique about it, when you look at the Jersey waterfront, the Philadelphia waterfront and Philadelphia's historic district—you have the aquarium, a sports-plex, the aerial tram, an entertainment center, and they continue to build more—there's no other city in America that will have that kind of contiguous environment."

It's no surprise that Jim Cuorato hopes the combined waterfront will be one of the best in the country. He's the president of the Penn's Landing Corporation, which owns much of the land on Penn's Landing.

But Riverview's Blatstein doesn't understand the excitement surrounding the two waterfronts-one destination idea. "I think we should focus more on our side of the waterfront than the other side. Why not? Why not support us? If there's public money to be spent, it should be spent on the Philadelphia waterfront. It'll create more jobs, taxes and revenue."

Regardless, if the Camden-Philadelphia combined waterfront is to be a success, it's got to extend beyond the waterfront, especially in Camden.

Just look at another two-city, two-state waterfront: St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois.

St. Louis' riverfront is largely taken up by the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park, where the 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch is located. Also on the river is Laclede's Landing, an entertainment center with a Planet Hollywood, a Spaghetti Factory and other attractions. There's even a floating McDonald's nearby. St. Louis also has a riverboat casino, The President, which is berthed between the arch and the Eads Bridge. The casino has failed to bring in the revenues expected. For the last few decades, St. Louis has concentrated on bringing the inner city back to life. As a result, their riverfront has become what some would call a disaster.

Across the river, in East St. Louis, they also have a riverboat casino, The Casino Queen, but it's bringing in twice that of the President.

Because they are in two different states, they have different gaming laws. In Missouri, there's a $500-per-visit gambling cap. There's none in Illinois.

Both sides are bickering over what to do. St. Louis wants to see something beautiful across from their beloved Arch, such as a park or cultural attractions. East St. Louis wants to do what it will. Among the proposals are an entertainment center, restaurants, and residential and commercial buildings. There's not much industry left in East St. Louis.

St. Louis is calling East St. Louis' plans "a hodgepodge" and "tacky."

In East St. Louis, Judy Hinrichs, executive director of America's Music Center, is trying to get her waterfront music museum off paper and into the ground. She's also involved in efforts to connect the two cities via a light rail system.

"People are terrified to come to East St. Louis," says Hinrichs. Since most of Illinois' money goes to Chicago and bigger cities, she's hoping her efforts will inspire other entrepreneurs to rebuild East St. Louis.

Tom Purcell, president of Laclede's Landing Development Corporation, recognizes the need for cooperation.

"It's like if you have a tennis player who's right-handed and their left hand isn't very developed. That kind of situation doesn't work."

A good example of where both sides have done well, says Purcell, is Covington and Cincinnati.

"I remember when no one would come to the waterfront, especially at night," says the Delaware River Port Authority's Diemer. "There was a lot of skepticism when they announced that they'd be building the aquarium. People thought it would just sit there by itself, but things have happened."

Now, each side attracts an estimated 1 million people a year. After both sides complete their many projects, they are estimating a combined total of 6 million to 8 million visitors per year.

Camden is far behind Covington in terms of revitalization. It still has boarded-up houses, prostitution, drugs, crime.

But it's also got people like 36-year resident Frank Fulbrook, who's been working to revitalize the waterfront Cooper-Grant neighborhood north of the Aquarium.

His neighborhood organization is busy cleaning up a brownfield site, where Standard Tank and Seat, which made wooden toilet seats, was located. Fulbrook says his group is in the final stages of cleanup and plans are to build middle-income residential properties.

The Cooper-Grant neighbors are also planning to restore Johnson Park, which is a block away from the neighborhood.

Additionally, Rutgers University has been active in reviving Camden, as has the new Camden-based combined campus of Rowan University and Camden Community College.

But people like Fulbrook and Corcoran aren't banking on miraculous transformations. After all, Camden's population is about 86,000; Philadelphia' s is 1.5 million.

"Downtown Camden will never have the flow of Center City or Chinatown. We're a city on a small scale. But some of us are here because we like being in a city, and there's no such place as downtown Cherry Hill. We like being here," says Fulbrook.

"When RCA and Campbell's Soup shut down, Market Street shut down," Fulbrook explains.

The commercial district has been in a depressed state ever since.

"The waterfront all by itself is not the definition of success here. The definition of success is something that would help the economy of Camden," says Fulbrook.

If all these projects are completed, it could reignite interest in Camden's Market Street. Corcoran agrees that attention needs to be paid to Camden's downtown, but he's not a believer in the traditional theories.

"I think what we've learned over the years—and I think other people have learned the same thing over time—is that there's no such thing as spillover or trickle-down. The synergies have to be planned and built-in."

Corcoran says Camden Mayor Milton Milan has brought together city groups to see how they can build connections from the waterfront to the downtown area. One idea is to turn the RCA Nipper building into an artists' loft and marketplace.

"There's no reason we can't [revitalize the downtown]," Corcoran says. "We don't have 95 separating us.

"A lot of what I hope will be happening here [on the waterfront] will rejoin the two cities again, in a different way, but still vital."

Which might just make this area a real contender.