Bellwether District could soon announce its first tenants

Officials for the Bellwether District say they are in “late-stage negotiations” with potential tenants to occupy the first of many buildings planned for the 1,300-acre former refinery site in South and Southwest Philadelphia.

However, Amelia Chassé Alcivar, a spokesperson for HRP Group, the site’s owner, said during an update on the project Tuesday that she would not comment on potential tenants.

She was responding to a question from environmental advocate Mitch Chanin about whether a data center is a possible use on the site of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) refinery that closed in 2019 after an explosion and fire.

“I want to emphasize that no official announcements have been made at this time, so I cannot confirm … I cannot deny,” she said, adding that, “I would just generally preach caution if you’re reading anything in the press that is not confirmed by us on the record or by the company on the record.”

Chassé Alcivar said that there are no plans to build a traditional power plant on site.

A recent BillyPenn article cited a union official who said a cogeneration plant is being discussed for the site. Cogeneration is considered a nontraditional technology that simultaneously, and efficiently, produces heat and electricity on site.

Chassé Alcivar said solar installations are being planned for at least some of the six million square feet of rooftops the development will have when fully built out over several phases in years to come.

“I will share with this group that we are in late-stage negotiations with several prospective tenants,” she said.

HRP, which was spun off from its parent company, Hilco, is building two massive commercial campuses on the site of the former refinery.

It plans about 14 buildings for a 750-acre industrial campus with the potential for 10,500 jobs.

And it plans a series of smaller buildings on a 250-acre innovation campus, originally slated to house mostly life sciences companies, with the potential for 8,500 jobs. The buildings are being designed for uses such as bio-manufacturing, processing, production, and tech.

In all, HRP plans for about 14 million square feet of buildings across the two campuses.

The ground of the sprawling site was tainted by 150 years of petroleum-related uses. As a result, it is undergoing a complex environmental remediation.

In its most recent history, Sunoco sold the refinery to PES in 2012. PES owned it at the time of the explosion and subsequent closure. PES went bankrupt and sold the site to Hilco Redevelopment Partners, now just HRP, in 2020.

Sunoco is responsible for contamination up to 2012. HRP is responsible for contamination after that. The two companies are coordinating cleanup with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Remediation is expected to be ongoing for years. Some of the soil will be capped by buildings and parking lots. Barriers are being installed to prevent vapors from volatile organic compounds in the ground from penetrating work areas in the buildings.

HRP says it will invest more than $4 billion into the redevelopment.

So far, HRP has completed a 326,000-square-foot class A warehouse on its 750-acre industrial campus with poured concrete floors and structural steel column supports off 26th Street.

It is finishing a second, 727,000-square-foot warehouse adjacent to the first with a planned boulevard leading into the campus for a total of little more than 1 million square feet.

Last month, Bellwether applied for a permit for a 1.4-million-square-foot building titled DrinkPAK warehouse. California-based DrinkPAK is a large manufacturer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic canned beverages.

DrinkPAK’s website lists two existing facilities: The first in Santa Clarita, Calif., and a second scheduled to open this year in Fort Worth, Texas. A map shows a third facility projected to open in 2027 in the Northeast with a marker showing an area in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Chassé Alcivar did not comment on that project during the meeting.