A Chicago firm is about to make its mark on South Philly’s refinery site

A Chicago-based redevelopment firm is about to make its mark on Philadelphia. On Thursday, a federal bankruptcy judge confirmed the $252 million sale of the sprawling shuttered South Philadelphia refinery site to Hilco Redevelopment Partners.

Hilco was selected from more than a dozen companies that lobbied for the refinery’s 1,300 acres, Philadelphia’s largest available commercial real estate parcel.

The firm, which has experience repurposing old industrial properties for new uses elsewhere, has vowed to move quickly to clean up the heavily contaminated site of South Philly’s 150-year-old petroleum refinery. While formalized plans for the land have not been made available, city officials have called the new prospects for the refinery site “exciting”. The firm is also revamping several old power plant sites, including the proposed L Street Station waterfront property in South Boston.

The reimagined site of the former power station will feature housing, retail spaces, a hotel, and space for the arts, according to the company’s vision for the land. In Philadelphia, the less-intensive industrial use of the massive fuel complex comes as welcome news to environmental and community activists, who have long rallied against the oil refinery. The site, which has been used for refining oil since the 1860s, will first need extensive environmental remediation before construction takes place.

However, it’s still possible that Hilco could lease some part of the refinery site to operate as a fuel-production facility. The massive June 2019 fire at the complex left one of its two refineries undamaged.