Part of University City has a new name: uCity Square

The stretch of Market Street between 34th and 38th streets was once called West Philadelphia, then University City. Now it has a new name: uCity Square.

For over 50 years the University City Science Center has served as a university-sponsored, nonprofit research park for several major institutions, including Penn, Drexel University, University of the Sciences and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Now, the Science Center is working with Wexford Science and Technology to expand into a full-blown community that will go by the name uCity Square. Along with space for research institutions, uCity Square will also feature retail and residential spaces.

The online pamphlet for uCity Square lists “high-quality retail,” a “bike share station” and “ample parking” among its amenities. With the 4 million square feet of new development will come 10 new buildings, which will “continue to provide sustainable growth for life science and technology companies.”

The area also includes Penn’s Counseling and Psychological Services and Student Health Services.

“[We’re] trying to distinguish between the place — a place to live, to work, to learn, to play — from the [economic part of the] Science Center,” said Joe Reagan, vice president of development of Wexford for the Philadelphia market. “We’ve kind of rebranded that place as uCity Square.”

He added that the development is not just an event that occurred out of the blue — it is a continuation of the past 50 years of growth around the Science Center.

“What’s spurring that development is not so much some event that just occurred,” Reagan said. “It’s an ongoing evolution of the development that’s been here for a while.”

Part of what is driving this growth is the desire for so many businesses to be located in University City. Reagan said that not only do companies that are affiliated with research institutions want to move into University City, but other companies are interested in relocating there to take advantage of the energy of the community.

Another factor driving the development, he added, is Wexford and Drexel’s purchase of the former University City High School, which was used as a site for over 2.7 million square feet of development. Reagan believes the repurposing of this site has also been beneficial to West Philadelphia as a whole, contributing to its “basic quality of life.”

The School District of Philadelphia built a fence around the old school, Reagan said. “By the redevelopment of it, we are reintroducing the street grid,” including a direct link between Lancaster and Market Streets.

“We will effectively have built a pleasant pedestrian experience,” Reagan said.

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