The 1300-acre Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) Refinery along the Schuylkill River in southwest Philadelphia will close. An explosion in June of 2019 was only the last in a series of setbacks for the troubled energy company, which filed for bankruptcy is January 2018, but its bankruptcy plan was approved in March of that year, but the refinery closed at the end of August 2019, idling over 1000 workers, though most have still been employed in the cleanup of the site following the accident. The facility was in operation for over 130 years and produced 335,000 barrels per day (bpd). In February 2020, the property went under an Agreement of sale with Hilco, a developer of multi-use light industrial facilities. As of the publication of this brief, the deal has yet to close, although it is expected to. Hilco’s plans for the site are still unknown, though the company has not ruled out the continuation of refinery-related business, given the existing infrastructure still in place. Before the sale, a proposal was already in place to create a $120 million renewable energy complex on the site.
As an example and to give more context to Hilco as the probable developer of this site, Hilco is a partner in an industrial project which have transformed the 3100 acre, heavily polluted Sparrows Point in Baltimore, converting it into a distribution hub, which also includes a hydroponic greenhouse and facilities supporting an offshore wind farm. The redevelopment involved remediation of numerous contaminants. By 2025, Hilco has projected reaching $2 billion in investment and creating 17,000 jobs.
The surrounding neighborhoods have been pushing to close the facility, and its leaders have been vocal in their distrust of PES and its operation over the years. The heavily polluted Southwest Philadelphia site is undergoing its own cleanup, which includes pumping subsurface petroleum for recycling. This effort will continue for many years.
Assuming petroleum refining might cease or be greatly scaled back at the Hilco site very soon, and that progress can be made on remediating its contamination, what could be the future of the site in 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years? How might the developer and the City work with the neighborhoods and businesses in the area to resolve their needs, which are often in conflict?
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