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<\/p>\nOne of the nation\u2019s last true streetcar suburbs is\u00a0riding toward two sets of tax increases as the future of its transit-oriented but vacancy-prone downtown remains up in the air.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers say new taxes will prevent an imminent \u201cfinancial calamity.\u201d But increased costs have\u00a0many scrambling for ways to bring more foot traffic, tenants and customers into Upper Darby’s main commercial district to ease the pain.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Bisnow\/Noah Zucker\n <\/p>\n
\n Upper Darby is getting a duo of tax increases from its municipal government and its leaders at the county level.\n <\/p>\n
A wide array of landowners in\u00a0Upper Darby\u00a0face additional expenses after Delaware County<\/a>\u00a0passed a 23% tax increase last year. Many residents of the township will pay even more when Upper Darby\u2019s new 1% earned income tax goes into effect on July 1.<\/p>\n Four different rail lines and more than a dozen bus routes converge at the\u00a069th Street\u00a0Transit Center, but retail vacancy is high, and foot traffic\u00a0along the adjacent shopping district has dropped dramatically in recent years.<\/p>\n The H&M across the street had just 1,782 visitors last month, down from 4,393 in February 2020 and 7,431 in February 2017, according to data provided by\u00a0Advan Research<\/a>\u00a0Corp.<\/p>\n That has put political officials and landlords in a bind.<\/p>\n \u201cUrban communities within suburban communities are hard to revitalize,\u201d said Philly Office Retail<\/a> President Ken Weinstein<\/a>, whose company owns an office building in Upper Darby. \u201cPeople in the burbs live in the burbs for a reason. They have left Philadelphia or do not want to live in Philadelphia because they aren\u2019t comfortable in urban communities.\u201d<\/p>\n But without the additional income tax revenue, the township would be heading toward a \u201cfinancial calamity,\u201d said Upper Darby Council Vice President Andrew Hayman, a longtime supporter of the tax bill.<\/p>\n The lawmaker has heard complaints about the county property tax increase,\u00a0but he said many constituents are understanding.<\/p>\n \u201cI know 23% is steep, and I certainly know people aren\u2019t happy about it,\u201d he said. \u201cMost people are patient and want to see these services provided.\u201d<\/p>\n Vacancy And Lack Of Velocity<\/p>\n Philly Office Retail’s 80K SF building at 7200 Chestnut St. is just 30% occupied. The property tax<\/a> increase means the company will be paying about $2,500 more to the county this year.<\/p>\n Weinstein\u00a0has been able to make it work because the company bought the previously vacant building from Verizon<\/a> in 2009 for just $1.1M during the peak of the\u00a0Global Financial Crisis<\/a>, but in 16 years, he has had no luck getting new tenants into the two upper floors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re pretty upset about it,\u201d Weinstein said of the tax increase.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big expense when you\u2019re not cash flowing,\u201d he added. \u201cWhen you roughly break even, it doesn\u2019t feel very good.\u201d<\/p>\n Vacant storefronts are also a common sight along 69th Street, which is largely owned by New York City-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ashkenazy\u00a0didn\u2019t respond to Bisnow\u2019s requests for comment but\u00a0earlier this month published a press release<\/a> celebrating two new fast-food restaurants opening on the corridor. The announcement came after the Gap<\/a> Factory location at 40 S. 69th St. closed late last year. The Old Navy<\/a> next door has since followed suit.<\/p>\n Those locations are on the same block as several other vacant buildings, including the former Studio Movie Grill<\/a> and the famed Tower Theater, a live music venue that has been empty since the \u201cVan Gogh: The Immersive Experience\u201d exhibit moved out in 2022.<\/p>\n \n Bisnow\/Noah Zucker\n <\/p>\n \n The new expenses come as vacancy has increased on 69th Street, downtown Upper Darby’s main commercial corridor.\n <\/p>\n One block south, a former Sears location at 150 S. 69th St. has been vacant and steadily deteriorating for well over a decade. A dilapidated parking deck at the site was torn down last summer.<\/p>\n The economic decline in downtown Upper Darby and other parts of Delco near the Philadelphia border has been progressing for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a slow and steady one since we\u2019ve been here,\u201d\u00a0Villanova University<\/a> professor and longtime Radnor<\/a> resident Ed Liva said. \u201cThe same thing happened in Philadelphia and Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n But economic conditions in recent decades prevented a sudden wave of middle-class white flight from Upper Darby like the ones that hollowed out many American cities after World War II.<\/p>\n \u201cOur economy doesn\u2019t have the velocity it had in the ’60s,\u201d Liva said. \u201cI think it\u2019s harder to pick up and leave.\u201d<\/p>\n Doom Loop Or ‘Best Worst Decision?’\u00a0<\/p>\n Republicans\u00a0believe\u00a0the tax increases could help them retake power<\/a> in upcoming local elections. The party used to dominate Upper Darby and the rest of Delco, but Democrats have had solid control of the county and municipal governments in recent years.<\/p>\n There has certainly been some anger about the property tax increase expressed online and at public meetings,\u00a0though\u00a0Liva hasn\u2019t seen much of that among his Villanova colleagues or his neighbors in Radnor.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t noticed that much resistance,\u201d said the academic, who teaches several tax courses. \u201cI was not upset with it. I completely understand the property tax base is what funds our schools and our police and fire departments.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to the 23% tax hike passed last year, the county hadn\u2019t implemented any significant tax increases in the postpandemic era. Neighboring counties had been incrementally increasing their rates over the same period.<\/p>\n The earned income tax in Upper Darby was more concerning to Liva. He\u00a0said similar measures have contributed to economic decline in midsized cities like Chester<\/a>, Camden<\/a> and Newark<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s going to end up stifling growth,\u201d the professor said. \u201cThe only way you address deficits is to raise revenue and cut back on expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n Philadelphia has a much higher income tax of 3.75% for its residents. The Tax Reform Commission, convened by Council President Kenyatta Johnson<\/a>, recommended cutting that rate<\/a> to\u00a0less than 3% last month.<\/p>\n But Hayman, a longtime proponent of the Upper Darby income tax, said the township would be in deep trouble without it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the best worst decision we could make,\u201d said the lawmaker, who is in the process of resigning and moving to Montgomery County. \u201cI don\u2019t think the alternative was better.\u201d<\/p>\n That is partly because the township works more like a city than many of the nearby suburbs. Hayman\u00a0said\u00a0Upper Darby is one of just two municipalities in Delco that has a fully staffed professional fire department instead of a volunteer squad. The township also has to pay parking enforcement agents, public works employees and police officers.<\/p>\n \n Bisnow\/Noah Zucker\n <\/p>\n \n The Tower Theater is one of several vacant buildings in the blocks surrounding the 69th Street Transit Center.\n <\/p>\n While Hayman appreciates the township\u2019s municipal workers, they don\u2019t come cheap. About 75% of Upper Darby\u2019s roughly $90M annual budget is spent on employees with contractually obligated raises, he said.<\/p>\n Despite these big-city expenses, Upper Darby is firmly a bedroom community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have the business revenue that Philadelphia gets per resident,\u201d Hayman said. \u201cWe\u2019re not zoned to have any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawmaker also\u00a0said that many other Pennsylvania municipalities<\/a> have a similar earned income tax.<\/p>\n The 40% of Upper Darby residents who already pay an income tax via their jobs in another municipality won\u2019t see an increase, as long as the rate they already pay is 1% or greater.<\/p>\n In most cases, 1% of the income levied in a different municipality will come back to Upper Darby. For example, Hayman works in Chester, where the rate is 2%. Half of that will return to his hometown.<\/p>\n The exception to that rule is Philadelphia, which state law allows to keep all of the income tax it collects from nonresidents, Hayman\u00a0said.<\/p>\n Diversity, Density And OZs<\/p>\n Liva\u00a0said\u00a0federally designated opportunity zones, which provide tax breaks for investments in economically depressed communities, could be a good way to spur development in downtown Upper Darby.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOnce that happens, your base of residents starts going up,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n Each state can only designate 25%<\/a> of its low-income census tracts as opportunity zones. In Delco, they are mostly concentrated in and around beleaguered Chester<\/a>. There are also two in Media, where the poverty rate is just 4.1%<\/a>, compared to\u00a0Upper Darby\u2019s 14%<\/a>, according to the Census Bureau<\/a>.<\/p>\n Weinstein would like to see the local government and business community step up to the plate with their own incentive program.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that there hasn\u2019t been a coherent plan from the powers that be,\u201d Weinstein said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey need to offer incentives to fill the storefronts, to rehab blighted buildings,\u201d the developer added. \u201cSomething needs to jump-start Upper Darby.\u201d<\/p>\n Hayman wants to see zoning changes around 69th Street. In many ways, downtown Upper Darby hasn\u2019t changed much since the neighborhood was first laid out about a century ago, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an area that was built up in the 1920s that wasn\u2019t really thought out and wasn\u2019t planned well,\u201d Hayman said.<\/p>\n That is why he would like to see the code updated to allow more density in the neighborhood around the transit center, which the lawmaker thinks could handle residential towers as tall as 15 stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt would relieve some of that [tax] burden on the residents,\u201d Hayman said, adding that the high-density zoning wouldn\u2019t necessarily need to impinge on the vast web of duplexes and single-family homes in Upper Darby\u2019s outlying neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Hayman and Weinstein agreed that the township\u2019s cultural diversity needs to be front and center. Twenty-one percent of township residents were born outside the U.S., Hayman said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has an incredible ethnic population, and that has led to a lot of diverse and good restaurant choices,\u201d Weinstein said.<\/p>\n The area around the H Mart at 7050 Terminal Square has been doing relatively well, for instance. The Asian supermarket with a food court and small shops on the second floor had 11,507 visitors last month, down from 15,444 in February 2020, according to Advan.<\/p>\n That is a drop of 34%, compared with the 59% seen at the H&M down the street.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say Upper Darby needs more of that,\u201d Weinstein said. \u201cThey should celebrate their diversity and use that to attract customers.\u201d<\/p>\n But these restaurants need to be boosted by a larger anchor, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSomething else has to attract people to Upper Darby,\u201d Weinstein\u00a0said. \u201cUltimately, people want to go to something like the Tower Theater and enjoy a good meal afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the nation\u2019s last true streetcar suburbs is\u00a0riding toward two sets of tax increases as the future…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2633,2630,2631,2626,212,2632,2628,2629,147,149,148,150,2627],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-69th-street","tag-advan-research-corp","tag-andrew-hayman","tag-ashkenazy-acquisition-corp","tag-delaware-county","tag-edward-liva","tag-ken-weinstein","tag-philly-office-retail","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township","tag-villanova-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n<\/p>\n