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Everyone in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard seems to be in a rush.
Work badges hung around the necks of those hustling along the Navy Yard’s clean and quiet sidewalks bounce in step as people get from place to place. Walkers on paths between the water and the land quicken their pace with only so much time to move during their break. Even the wildlife seems hurried as little brown groundhogs scurry within the many manicured green spaces in the Navy Yard.
Home to roughly 16,000 employees from over 150 businesses, the place’s busyness is expected and about the only thing that resembles the rest of Philadelphia. A 1,200-acre mixed-use campus, the Navy Yard is open and quiet, with only car engines and the breeze as background noise – when construction isn’t underway on one of the many development projects in the area. Crime is extremely rare, as most just come to the area for work at one of the Navy Yard’s many offices or manufacturers.
All that quiet comes with a caveat: There are no grocery stores in the Navy Yard, dining options aren’t nearly as robust as they are a mile or so away in South Philadelphia, and very few people actually live there. It’s all for a reason, of course; residential buildings at the Navy Yard didn’t open until January 2026, offering 614 units across two buildings. Roughly 40% of those units are filled now. A Navy deed restriction prevented residential development until 2023, a holdover from the area’s long history as a military and industrial site.
The past and future
In 1776, the Continental Congress leased land along the city’s Front Street docks for naval defense, and in 1801, the Navy established its first federally-owned shipyard in the Southwark neighborhood in South Philadelphia. But as ships grew larger and shipbuilding technology changed, the Southwark site became too cramped.
In 1868, Philadelphia transferred the 923-acre League Island, located farther south along the Delaware River, to the federal government for $1. The Navy gradually moved its Philadelphia shipbuilding operations from Southwark to League Island, which would become the modern-day Navy Yard, and the old Southwark Yard closed in 1876. The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at League Island remained active for another 120 years, employing more than 40,000 people at its World War II peak before closing in 1996.
The city took control of much of the property in 2000, with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) overseeing its transformation from a military installation into the sprawling office, industrial and research campus that exists today.
PIDC, the public-private economic development agency that oversees the Navy Yard, has tried to steer that transformation with a long horizon in mind. Alex Smith, vice president of strategic initiatives at PIDC, described the organization as “the master developer” of the Navy Yard.
“Our original goals and intent were to create a mixed-use neighborhood and opportunity that not only brought back the jobs that were lost as part of the 1996 closure, but also to diversify the uses and businesses and companies down here,” Smith said.
PIDC’s 2022 master plan calls for about $6 billion in investment over 15 to 20 years and sets targets of 30,000 workers and 4,500 residents. The plan will add 4,000 residential units, about 265,000 square feet of retail and millions of square feet of new office, lab and life sciences space.
Though progress is top of mind for Smith and those at PIDC, so is preservation. Many of the WWI-era boxy brick buildings once used to build ships remain in the Navy Yard and now serve more than 150 employers in the area. The U.S. Navy is still the largest employer in the area; its workers make up roughly a fourth of the 16,000-strong population of those who work there. But part of the crowd bustling past the big metal ships obstructing the view of the Delaware River on their way to work is a fashionable crowd of Urban Outfitters employees, the second-largest employer at the Navy Yard.
“A little secret”
Among the crowd of Urban Outfitters employees in a recent Thursday morning hustle to work was Joanna Creamer, who’s worked as a designer for Free People, a brand under Urban Outfitters, for 11 years. She drives in from Fishtown every day and described the Navy Yard area as “picturesque.”
“It’s like a little secret, sort of different, area of the city that has a lot of space and trees,” said Creamer. “It’s pretty. The buildings are beautiful, so it’s a really visually nice place to work.”
With 614 apartment units available at the Navy Yard and 16,000 who work there, Creamer is one of many who commute to the area for work. The backs of cars in Navy Yard parking lots show a good mix of New Jersey license plates.
Commuting into work is easier with the recent extension of SEPTA’s Route 45, which began serving the Navy Yard in August. The route now provides seven-day service between Center City and nine stops throughout the Navy Yard, marking the return of direct SEPTA bus service to the campus for the first time in more than a decade.
Still, the area offers more than work. The area has a regular run club, yoga sessions and community walks, as well as other non-recurring events for families.
Xavier Counts, an engineer who’s worked in the Navy Yard for 13 years, said he made friends in the area playing softball, kickball and touch football at the Marine Parade Ground, an eight-acre area of green space in the Navy Yard.
“If you’re plugged into what the Navy Yard has to offer, there are always events here,” said Counts. “You just have to be plugged into the right channels.”
What to do
Counts said he found his channels through a corkboard in the Urban Outfitters campus but you don’t need an employee badge to spend time at the Navy Yard. The campus is open to the public, and much of what there is to do revolves around its more than 20 acres of parks, public art and a roughly mile-long waterfront trail.
Central Green, a five-acre park near the middle of the campus, has hammocks, bocce courts, table tennis, fitness equipment and a looping track. Farther east, the Riverfront Greenway follows the Delaware River. It offers one of the better ways to take in the Navy Yard’s unusual mix of retired ships, old industrial buildings and new development. The Marine Parade Grounds, meanwhile, regularly hosts races, recreational sports and other events.
Food options are still limited compared with most Philadelphia neighborhoods, and several cater primarily to the weekday workforce. DiNic’s Pork & Beef serves breakfast and its well-known roast pork and beef sandwiches on weekdays, while Shop 543 and Jharoka offer lunch, coffee and lighter options inside Urban Outfitters’ Building 543. For a sit-down meal or drink, Gatehouse sits near the Broad Street entrance and has a large outdoor patio and beer garden. A rotating lineup of food trucks also visits the Navy Yard from April through October.
For now, the Navy Yard is probably easiest to experience during the workweek, when its lunch spots are open, and thousands of employees fill the campus. But its parks, waterfront and increasingly frequent public events offer a glimpse of what PIDC hopes the area will become as more residents, restaurants and businesses arrive.
