East Market looks to be new Center City hub for shopping, living

Wednesday, July 13, 2016
VIDEO: East Market progress
A $600 million development project will give a big boost to Center City.

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- East Market is an ambitious $600 million development project that will give a big boost to Center City.

It will bring modern office and living space as well as new retail shops and restaurants to an entire city block.

By next spring, in a corner of the four acre site, there will be a 17-story apartment tower.

East Market is an ambitious $600 million development project that will give a big boost to Center City.

"322 new rental units that we will deliver April of next year," Daniel Killinger of National Real Estate Development said.

People who live in the apartment tower might work in the 19th century warehouse that is being reconfigured.

Among its tenets is The Design Center, a collection of nine firms that support architects and designers.

Gregory Augustine walked us through what will be the front doors of his showroom that soon will be fitted out with high end decorating stock from fabrics to furniture and beyond.

"This was a prime location, a very central spot, and it's just really evolving naturally into this design hub," Augustine said.

In the 15,000 square foot ground floor space will be Mom's Organic Market out of the DC area.

"We're very dedicated to organics. We're pretty radical, for lack of a better word, in our culture," Mom's CEO Scott Nash said.

Nash says think Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and then some.

"We sell an organic mattress. We sell textile clothing that's organic. We sell what we're calling our new sustainable protein section, which is insects," Nash said.

Yes, he said insects.