DRPA kicking in $10 million for soccer

The Delaware River Port Authority yesterday approved $10 million to help build a soccer stadium complex on the Chester waterfront.

The decision to use Delaware River bridge tolls for the sports, residential, and business complex comes weeks after the toll authority said it was out of the stadium-building business - and just as the agency prepares for toll increases.

The bistate DRPA, which is expected to raise tolls by midyear for bridge repairs, says $10 million earmarked years ago for redevelopment at Penn's Landing will be shifted to the Chester project at the urging of Gov. Rendell, the agency's chairman.

Major League Soccer reportedly is close to agreeing to put an expansion team in the Philadelphia area, in part because of the promises of a stadium and financing.

Last month, Rendell announced that Pennsylvania would provide $47 million toward the anticipated cost of about $500 million for the complex, including $115 million for the stadium. DRPA officials said yesterday that the $10 million from the agency would not be used for the stadium, but for other parts of the project, which would have stores, restaurants and housing.

The only vote on the DRPA board against giving the money to the Chester project came from Robert F. Teplitz, who represents Jack Wagner, the Pennsylvania auditor general, on the board.

DRPA officials said the $10 million would boost the project's chances for success and provide a much-needed economic shot in the arm for one of Pennsylvania's poorest cities.

"There is no place in Pennsylvania more deserving of development," said John H. Estey, who acts as agency chairman in Rendell's stead. "It seems to me a worthwhile investment for the DRPA to make. . . . We have a project that is ready to go today that will service an underserved community."

Jeffrey Nash, the Camden County freeholder who is vice chairman of the authority, said that the Chester project was a smart investment and that "the public wants their leaders to make smart, prudent investments."

Estey and Nash had said in December, as the DRPA prepared its budget and faced the prospect of toll increases, that future spending by the authority would be limited to transportation-related projects.

The officials said the $10 million for Chester did not represent new spending, but a shift of funding already allocated for economic development. It had been earmarked for an entertainment complex at Penn's Landing that had not gotten off the ground.

DRPA officials added that the $10 million was dwarfed by the $1.2 billion required for bridge repairs, rebuilt PATCO rail cars, and other improvements.

"It's a fraction of what we need. . . . It wouldn't make a large difference in the amount of a toll increase," said chief executive officer John Matheussen, who noted that the DRPA's revised charter makes economic development part of its responsibility.

The funding for the Chester project follows a decade of redevelopment spending that has helped push the agency $1.2 billion into debt, requiring it to spend about 42 percent of its revenue on interest and principal.

Since 1999, the agency has spent $375 million to help build the Kvaerner (now Aker) Philadelphia Shipyard, Lincoln Financial Field, the Kimmel Center, the National Constitution Center, the New Jersey State Aquarium (now Adventure Aquarium), and dozens of other economic-development projects.

The proposal comes as the agency prepares to take its case for higher bridge tolls to the commuting public.

In public meetings in the next few months, authority officials will lay out a plan for borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for repairs and improvements to bridges and the PATCO High-Speed Line. That money is expected to be repaid with higher tolls on the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry bridges.

Tolls - now $3 for autos, paid only by westbound motorists - could rise as much as $2. An alternative would be an increase below $2 and annual hikes tied to inflation.

About 82 percent of the port authority's revenue comes from drivers who use the four bridges. The agency expects to take in about $238 million this year, $195 million of that in bridge tolls.

Yesterday, the DRPA board also agreed to reallocate $38.5 million that was borrowed in 1999 for dredging the Delaware River.

Half of the money will go to dredging, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. The other half will be used for unspecified waterfront projects on the South Jersey side of the river.

The money shift was part of a deal reached in May between Pennsylvania and New Jersey that ended a 17-month stalemate over dredging.

That agreement made the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority the project sponsor and required Pennsylvania to keep the dredged spoil and seek an environmental-impact statement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

It also allowed New Jersey to retain its permitting authority and released it from any financial obligations, officials said.

As part of the deal, Pennsylvania agreed to support an expansion of the PATCO High-Speed Line in Center City and into Gloucester County.