As the Navy Yard prepares to welcome new residents, the former base secures environmental accolades
A 614-unit apartment complex is expected to open this fall, and more housing is planned adjacent to the area’s offices and labs.
After the closure of much of the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s military infrastructure in the 1990s, this slice of land at the southernmost edge of the city emerged as a new office and laboratory hub. This fall the first new private-sector housing will open, with 4,000 more units planned.
Critics of the Navy Yard have argued that it competes with Center City and University City, attracting corporate tenants that might otherwise locate in the more transit-oriented, walkable, and urban parts of Philadelphia. In mid-2022, 93% of workers commuted by car.
The developers leading the transformation of the site, Ensemble Investments and Mosaic Development Partners, have nonetheless won the U.S. Green Building Council’s seal of approval: a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) designation encompassing the whole property.
The nationally recognized nonprofit announced Tuesday that the Navy Yard is the largest LEED for Neighborhood Development designated area in the country, according with the organization’s highest environmental and sustainability standards.
The site is eligible for the designation now because it is becoming a residential neighborhood, with tenants soon moving into the Navy Yard’s new 614-apartment complex developed in partnership with Korman Communities.
“This goes beyond the buildings; it thinks about the place [and] building a better neighborhood,” said Brian Cohen, managing director of Ensemble development.
The Navy Yard was able to win the LEED ND classification because the new structures are built with a focus on air quality and natural light and because the larger site planning includes extensive, and walkable, tracts of land devoted to natural space like the Central Green, Crescent Park, and League Island Park.
“This is not just grass and some trees,” Cohen said. These are “parks that have activities and amenities like Ping-Pong, bocce, and a running track.”
The Navy Yard’s stormwater management strategies also played into the environmental award. Green roofs are the traditional way that developers seek to lessen the impact of their building’s drainage on the environment, but the Navy Yard also uses rain gardens along Rouse Boulevard to filter the dirtiest runoff, which comes from cars that leave fossil fuel and tire detritus in their wake.
While the Navy Yard is not connected to SEPTA’s rail system, the Green Building Council took into account its private shuttle system, which ferries commuters to work on-site. A forthcoming expansion of SEPTA bus service is expected to further boost non-car commuting.
“In the near term, as we add residents, bus service will expand and then as more development occurs it will expand further,” said Cohen.
Car commuting skyrocketed during the pandemic, but recently the developers say advanced manufacturing and life sciences companies have been relying on the shuttle.
“A majority of the people who work in those buildings are the younger generation of the workforce,” said Mark Seltzer, managing director with Ensemble. Many companies report between 30% and 40% of their workforce does not commute by car.
Seltzer notes that the Navy Yard has no vacancy in its office portfolio, a striking contrast to the admittedly much larger sectors in Center City, University City, and the suburbs. Their three best office leasing years have been post-COVID: 2021, 2022, and 2024.
“If companies are going to get people out of their house, they want to bring them to a clean, safe, accessible place with lots of natural light and parks,” Seltzer said.
Ensemble and Mosaic are projecting that people who rent at the Navy Yard will be more likely to work there as well, encouraging a quick and healthy pedestrian commute. Center City has seen similar patterns.
Further construction plans are unfolding as well, despite the difficult real estate environment in part because Ensemble and Mosaic have a development agreement with the city that requires them to not sit idle.
As the Korman apartment buildings come online, the developers are focusing on their next project: transforming a 440,000-square-foot industrial warehouse into a space inspired by Scout’s Bok Building. That means studios, maker spaces, office space for artisans and nonprofits.
The next residential phase would be phased construction of several buildings with 1,200 to 1,400 units along Flagship Avenue. Developers hope to break ground at the end of next year. Another 2,000 units are proposed along the Delaware River, sweeping into a wooded area that’s overgrown dozens of long-vacant rowhouses.
“We have a development agreement that we need to beat,” Cohen said. “But we also believe in the Navy Yard and we want to continue the momentum.”