Monte Bohna PhD Consulting Grant Writer

Philadelphia’s Center City District has released its report “State of Center City 2025“, the latest in a series of well-researched assessments of the city’s core.

Among the points of interest is a comparison, as of the end of 2024, of the rate of return to office (RTO) of non-resident people working in twenty-six major urban central business districts across the United States. While the average across these cities was 68%, Center City is substantially higher at 74%, a point which – assuming SEPTA can be rescued from its current budget crisis so that they can continue to commute in – bodes well for the city’s health.

An additional point, which the report does not stress but which is clear from the figures it presents, is that the Northeast generally seems to be leading the US in this respect. Of the cities compared, the three with the highest rates of RTO appear to be Boston (also at 74%), Manhattan (83% for Midtown and 70% for Lower Manhattan), and Philly itself. This contrasts with cities like Seattle (60%), Los Angeles (64%), Phoenix (66%), and Atlanta (61%). An explanation for this difference must surely include the greater density, and therefore more practicable mass-transit solutions, of these older cities – a point which underscores the importance of mass transit systems to the future of these northeastern cities.

https://centercityphila.org/research-reports/state-of-center-city