Center City Philadelphia

The Center City District (CCD) is a business improvement district. Our mission is to keep Philadelphia's downtown, called Center City, clean, safe, beautiful and fun. We provide security, cleaning and promotional services that supplement, but do not replace, basic services provided by the City of Philadelphia and the fundamental responsibilities of property owners.

CCD also makes physical improvements to the downtown, installing and maintaining lighting, signs, banners, trees and landscape elements.

The district encompasses 120 blocks and more than 4,500 individual properties.

A 23-member board of directors governs CCD, representing Center City's major property owners and a wide cross section of downtown businesses, labor unions, neighborhood, civic and health-care organizations.

CCD directly bills and collects mandatory payments from properties in the district. CCD also receives voluntary contributions from the owners of tax-exempt properties that benefit from our services.

Our History

CCD was founded in 1990 when property owners, commercial tenants and employers, along with the City of Philadelphia, agreed to establish a private-sector business improvement district for five years, to keep downtown Philadelphia clean, safe and beautiful. CCD is authorized under Pennsylvania's Municipality Authorities Act.

Since our establishment, property owners and the City of Philadelphia have reauthorized CCD several times to extend and expand our services:

• In 1994, CCD was authorized to finance and implement a comprehensive program of streetscape improvements and to extend our lifespan to 2015.
• In 2004, CCD was reauthorized through 2025, enabling us to refinance our 1995 streetscape improvement bonds at a lower interest rate.
• In 2007, with a significant increase in new office, hotel and residential properties, property owners and the City of Philadelphia approved a new CCD plan and budget that allows us to provide expanded levels of service while continuing to keep annual cost increases in line with the rate of inflation.