Will Millennials Stay In Center City?

Will the Center City boom be long-lasting? Will Millennials want to stay there as they age? Those vital questions will be front and center at Bisnow's Future of Center City event at the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia on March 10.

CBRE EVP Steve Gartner, who will be a speaker, tells us many Millennials will undoubtedly leave the city to raise their families in the same suburban surroundings they grew up in. "However, I expect many more will choose a life in or near an urban center," he says. For one thing, the trend toward smaller residential spaces bodes well for prolonged living in the city.

More importantly, Steve adds, more adults are opting to live in nontraditional family and personal arrangements, including getting married later, voluntarily raising children as single parents, and other arrangements well-suited for city living. "Where the cities were perceived as inconvenient for raising families, they're becoming stocked with jobs and recreation like never before."

According to the recent Center City District report Sustaining Demand for Downtown Housing, the neighborhood has about 400 arts and cultural institutions, fine-dining restaurants and outdoor cafés. All of them are attracting rising volumes of pedestrians, creating a vibrant daytime and evening economy. As the Millennial surge begins to wane in five years or so, the key for Center City will be to create more jobs, retain more college grads, and keep families in the region with high-quality schools.

Come hear more at the Future of Center City event, beginning at 7:30am on March 10 at the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia. Sign up here.