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New York developer Durst is among bidders competing for Penn’s Landing site eyed by 76ers

The company said it offered a proposal for the Penn's Landing property owned by a government-affiliated nonprofit.

A view of the northern end of Penn's Landing at Market Street. New York's Durst Organization is vying with the 76ers' owners to develop the site.
A view of the northern end of Penn's Landing at Market Street. New York's Durst Organization is vying with the 76ers' owners to develop the site.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

The Durst Organization, an established New York real estate company that has been expanding its Philadelphia holdings, is among those competing with the owners of the 76ers basketball team to redevelop Penn’s Landing, Durst said.

Durst spokesperson Jordan Barowitz said the company responded to a call to submit proposals for the site made by the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, the government-affiliated nonprofit that owns Penn’s Landing.

Barowitz declined to share any details of his company’s plans, citing the DRWC’s request that bidders for the site not publicly discuss their proposals.

“We are respecting DRWC’s process,” he said.

DRWC announced last fall that it was seeking developers to construct residential buildings with ground-floor shops and restaurants north and south of the 12-acre park planned over a section of I-95 between Chestnut and Walnut Streets.

The 7.4-acre northern development site, bounded by Market and Chestnut Streets, has hosted an ice- and roller-skating rink and, until its recent demolition, a hulking cement tower built for an ill-fated sky-tram to Camden. The 3.7-acre southern section consists mostly of a parking lot bounded by Spruce and Lombard Streets.

People familiar with the proposal by Sixers owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer have said it will include a 19,000-seat arena nestled among apartments, a hotel, two museums, a dozen or so restaurants, a supermarket, and a public school building.

Durst’s proposal, if selected, would add to that company’s growing waterfront Philadelphia footprint.

Early this year, Durst paid the DRWC $10 million for a 1.6-acre parking lot just north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, where it plans a 25-story tower with 10,000 square feet of retail space.

It also owns an assemblage of four nearby piers that include those occupied by waterfront restaurants Dave & Buster’s and Morgan’s Pier.

In New York, the company counts Manhattan’s One World Trade Center and 4 Times Square office buildings among its holdings.