PhillyDeals: Conference told: Don't expect cheap gas, oil to last long
How long will we enjoy gas below $2 a gallon, or oil below $50 a barrel? "I wouldn't bet on more than a year," Philip Rinaldi, who runs Philadelphia Energy Solutions and its big refinery, storage, and shipping complex in South Philadelphia, told Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce members at their yearly economic forecast breakfast Wednesday.
How long will we enjoy gas below $2 a gallon, or oil below $50 a barrel?
"I wouldn't bet on more than a year," Philip Rinaldi, who runs Philadelphia Energy Solutions and its big refinery, storage, and shipping complex in South Philadelphia, told Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce members at their yearly economic forecast breakfast Wednesday.
But, like a Wall Street trader, Philadelphia could benefit from Marcellus Shale gas and oil whether world prices rise or fall, Rinaldi added.
He's chief cheerleader in the campaign to make the region an "energy hub," where Marcellus Shale gas and fuels are stored and sold to users around the world.
Will all that energy boost the slow-growing local economy even after the pipe connection work is done? Or will Philadelphia be just a station on the global fuel network?
"We need to create new consumers of that gas," Rinaldi said. It will make a big difference to local employment if the end users of Pennsylvania fuel are in Marcus Hook, instead of Mumbai or Maoming.
Rinaldi wasn't the only CEO giving the crowd something to brace for - or hope for:
Obamacare. Kathleen Kinslow, CEO of Aria Health (the former Frankford hospital group in Northeast Philly), acknowledged that small businesses are getting plastered by higher health insurance costs, leaving members with $5,000 or $10,000 deductibles.
The Affordable Care Act has expanded the number of insured hospital customers, she said. But that's not enough to keep "overbedded" hospitals in business: "In this area, there will be a lot of consolidation," Kinslow said. "You will see some closures."
Wasted giveaways? William Hankowsky, head of Malvern-based national landlord Liberty Property Trust, said he's impressed by the "very dramatic impact" of Gov. Christie's program to give Subaru of America, the 76ers, and other area corporations multimillions of dollars to move operations into depressed Camden, and similar efforts by others that lured a hotel, arena, and bank tower to Allentown.
"In both instances, though, it hasn't necessarily generated new jobs to the region," Hankowsky added. "Is this really a good thing? Is the government giving up revenue for no net gain?"
Hankowsky also touted his company's second Comcast tower, which he said is designed to lure "talented engineers, technology people, and software people" to Philly to work below loft-style ceilings under chilled-beam heating and cooling systems. "These are the kind of people who are going to live in town, be consumers in our restaurants, [patronize] our vendors and hotels."
Hankowsky urged the crowd to be nice to Liberty's top client: "Anytime you see (Comcast boss Brian) Roberts, thank him," he said. "They don't have to be here."
Penn builds. Philadelphia's largest employer, the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine, keeps expanding beyond its West Philadelphia campus, said Penn executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, who runs the place while president Amy Gutmann is off in New York raising millions.
"We're going to open a Penn Wharton Center in Beijing," Carnaroli said. Though it won't be a fancy foreign campus like New York University's in Abu Dhabi, he added.
Plus, "we're breaking ground for an Innovation Center at the former site of DuPont Marshall Labs at Grays Ferry Avenue and 34th Street," east of the Schuylkill and south of Penn's main campus, Carnaroli said. It'll be like the University City Science Center - offices, labs, parking - with the addition of warehouses and "light" manufacturing.
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