TODD MONAHAN JOINS WCRE AS EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & MANAGING DIRECTOR TO LEAD PA & NJ GROWTH

Wolf Commercial Real Estate (WCRE) proudly announces the hiring of Todd Monahan to lead the firm’s growth in the Pennsylvania & New Jersey markets.

As Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Monahan will leverage his extensive industry experience to develop and implement effective growth strategies as WCRE approaches its tenth anniversary.

Monahan’s new role comes amid WCRE’s continuing expansion in the region, adding numerous brokers and increasing its activity in southeastern Pennsylvania. “Todd’s guidance will play a key role in managing our growth and recruiting new talent, especially as our CORFAC International alliance continues to open up new business opportunities,” Wolf added. Over the course of nearly 30 years in real estate, Monahan has represented both owners and occupiers and worked directly for several REITs and Private Equity ownership firms. He brings a unique perspective as he has developed strategies and completed transactions from all sides.

His most recent position was with Keystone Property Group. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) where his team leased 1650 Arch, 3 Parkway and the Public Ledger Building. He also represented numerous corporate entities, law firms, and non-profit organizations in a variety of real estate transactions. Prior to JLL, Monahan served as a Vice President of Acquisitions at Patriot Equities, Director of Leasing at Equity Office Properties (EOP) where he leased 1601 and 1700 Market Street. Earlier in his career he was a Vice President at Grubb & Ellis Company.

Monahan graduated from University of Richmond’s Claiborne Robbins School of Business with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with concentrations in finance and marketing.

About WCRE

WCRE is a full-service commercial real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in office, retail, medical, industrial and investment properties in Southern New Jersey and the Philadelphia region. We provide a complete range of real estate services to commercial property owners, companies, banks, commercial loan servicers, and investors seeking the highest quality of service, proven expertise, and a total commitment to client-focused relationships. Through our intensive focus on our clients’ business goals, our commitment to the community, and our highly personal approach to client service, WCRE is creating a new culture and a higher standard. We go well beyond helping with property transactions and serve as a strategic partner invested in your long term growth and success.

Learn more about WCRE online at www.wolfcre.com, on Twitter & Instagram @WCRE1, and on Facebook at Wolf Commercial Real Estate, LLC. Visit our blog pages at www.southjerseyofficespace.com.

QVC parent company sells West Chester building for $17.5M

Qurate Retail Group, the parent company of QVC Inc. and the Home Shopping Network, has sold one of its buildings in West Chester for $17.5 million, having determined it no longer needed the space as the company embraces a flexible work arrangement going forward.

Parsons 1365 LLC, an entity affiliated with Communications Test Design Inc., bought the five parcels that comprise the property at 1365 Enterprise Drive, according to Chester County real estate records. The property includes a 256,500-square-foot office building and related parking. CTDI is located next door at 1373 Enterprise Drive.

A representative from CTDI couldn’t be reached for comment.

Qurate will continue to own and operate from Studio Park, which is the company’s global headquarters located at 1200 Wilson Drive in West Chester, according to a Qurate spokeswoman. The 720,000-square-foot property is home to its corporate offices, as well as QVC’s U.S.-based broadcast studios.

The decision to sell 1365 Enterprise, which QVC refers to as its Founder’s Park building, came after the company concluded it will continue to integrate virtual work within its operations and all of its West Chester operations would be folded into the Studio Park building, the Qurate spokeswoman said.

The company does not disclose employee headcount by location but confirmed the sale will not result in a reduction in headcount.

Qurate joins other companies that are re-evaluating their office space needs as a result of permanently adopting work-from-home arrangements after employees moved to remote work during the pandemic. Some companies have been trying to sublease excess space, and others that own their buildings are seeking to sell properties they have determined they no longer need. Pfizer Inc. is among the most prominent to fall into that category. The pharmaceutical company recently put its 340-acre Collegeville campus up for sale.

*Article courtesy of The Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Local sublease space mounts as companies trickle back to offices, figure out how much room they need

Five Below Inc. is trying to sublease 42,000 square feet at its Philadelphia headquarters, deciding it no longer needs the space it grabbed two years ago for future expansion. If possible, it wouldn’t mind getting rid of an additional 26,000 square feet for a grand total of 68,000 square feet.

The company is “evaluating a hybrid model and the hybrid model needs less space,” said Christiane Pelz, a company spokeswoman.

The discount retailer is far from the only company undertaking a process to determine how much space it needs going forward. Many companies are considering more flexible work arrangements post-pandemic and this has meant they don’t need as much space as they currently occupy.

As a result, firms in every sector across the region are vacating and subleasing that excess space and just about every office submarket is suffering from the same malaise: more sublease space coming available, higher vacancies and negative absorption rates.

Examples of companies that have vacated or looking to sublease space include: Optum 360 vacating 137,000 square feet at 1001 Adams Ave. in Lower Providence; PNC Bank vacating 255,000 square feet at its operations center at 8800 Tinicum Blvd. in Philadelphia; Farmers Insurance Group leaving 211,000 square feet at 3 Beaver Valley Road in Wilmington; Oracle Corp. subletting 29,150 square feet at Five Tower Bridge in Conshohocken; Comcast Corp. subletting 18,375 square feet at Four Tower Bridge in Conshohocken; Teknion emptying out of 29,650 square feet at 350 Fellowship Road in Mount Laurel, N.J.; and Magee Memorial Hospital vacating from 19,000 square feet at Suburban Station in Philadelphia.

A recent study shows the amount of sublease space has risen across the region including the western suburbs, Center City, Wilmington and South Jersey and few have been spared.

Of the 27 submarkets tracked, 19 experienced increases in sublease vacancy, three decreased, and five have remained unchanged. The office submarkets of Valley Forge, Delaware County, and New Castle County have seen the largest increases over the past year.

Research shows the average office employee is expected to spend about 35% of their time working remotely.

The overall vacancy rate for the region stands at 17.7%. Vacancy in Center City is 14.3% and 19.5% in the suburbs. At the end of the first quarter in 2020, Center City’s vacancy rate was 12.4% and the suburbs stood at 14.7%, according to Newmark.

The rising vacancies and sublease space doesn’t mean the market has cratered. Leases are still getting done and some submarkets are showing resilience.

“The Conshohocken market is still incredibly strong,” said Chris Buccini, co-president of Buccini/Pollin Group, which owns buildings in Conshohocken, along Swedesdford Road in Wayne and Wilmington. “What we’re finding is if tenants want to leave the city and go to the suburbs and they want to be in an urban environment, they come to Conshohocken.”

Since March 2020, Buccini/Pollin wrapped up 75 new and renewal deals totaling one million square feet of deals that tallied up to $300 million in lease transactions across its three main markets of Wilmington, the Philadelphia suburbs and Pittsburgh. Whether that momentum will carry into this year has yet to be seen.

First-quarter regional leasing activity totaled 679,894 square feet, declining by 25% from the end of the year. Leasing activity in Philadelphia’s Central Business District fell 57.4% to 188,263 square feet.

“The reality is that if you ask anyone who has been working from home for the past year what they need, they really have no idea what they need,” Buccini said. “The needs are different and not one size fits all. Companies are going to have to come back and see what they need.”

Brandywine Realty Trust, the region’s largest landlord of trophy and Class A office space, said in its first quarter earnings call that it is seeing “encouraging signs” in the office market such as an increase in leasing and tour activity.

Smaller to midsized tenants are the ones that have generally returned to work and those tenants that have yet to do so have told Brandywine three target dates for returning to their offices: July 1, Labor Day and sometime in the fourth quarter.

Five Below leases 200,000 square feet at the Litsbuilding at 701 Market St. The 42,000 square feet of expansion space has been demolished in preparation for a build out that won’t happen and a tenant could take that raw space and fit it out. Five Below also has another 26,000 square feet of built out space that is also available for sublease.

*Article courtesy of The Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Dechert Signs Short-Term Lease Renewal at Cira Centre, Reduces Space by More than Half

Dechert has signed a short-term renewal on about 109,000 square feet of office space over four floors at Cira Centre.

Dechert, one of Philadelphia’s largest law firms, had been in discussions for some time with the building’s landlord, Brandywine Realty Trust, to occupy four floors in the upper section of Cira Centre. The firm had originally occupied around 240,000 square feet space in the office tower and gave back three floors.

Brandywine officials said during a call with analysts on Thursday that it had extended Dechert’s lease a year ago for 12 months and further extended that lease with the firm in a deal that commences in 2022. A representative from Dechert couldn’t be reached for comment. Glenn Blumenfeld of Tactix Real Estate Advisors represented Dechert and declined comment.

Companies are signing short-term lease arrangements with more frequency to give them some extra time to figure out what their future space needs are post-pandemic. That surely figured into Dechert’s decision, and landlords have been accommodating to keep buildings occupied.

Firms are also shrinking their footprints as they right-size the amount of space they need post pandemic. Many are realizing they don’t as much space as they go to a hybrid model of work, providing employees the flexibility to work from home and in the office. Two other law firms, BakerHostetler and Blank Rome, reduced the amount of space they took in recent lease deals.

In addition, Dechert is dealing with ongoing litigation surrounding a tax break the law firm is seeking in a potential future relocation of its office space in Philadelphia.

Before committing to the renewal, Dechert had been focused on JFK Towers, an office complex in Schuylkill Yards that is proposed by Brandywine and located in a Keystone Opportunity Zone.

Last summer, Commonwealth Court ruled against the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, saying that Dechert could relocate for a second time into an opportunity zone. Cira Centre was in an opportunity zone when Dechert moved into it and the firm received the tax break benefits that it provided. The proposed JFK Towers are also in an opportunity zone.

DCED has appealed the Commonwealth Court ruling and no decision has been rendered. It is unclear how the lease renewal at Cira Centre affects Dechert’s interest in Schuylkill Yards.

Brandywine (NYSE: BDN) is in the process of repositioning Cira Centre. It is converting floors three through nine into life sciences space. Brandywine also teamed up with the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County to create B.Labs, a life science incubator at Cira Centre.

The 50,000-square-foot B.Labs, expected to open during the fourth quarter of this year, is being designed to provide collaboration and research space for startup, early-stage and established biotech and pharmaceutical companies. B.Labs will have event space on the second floor of the Cira Centre and incubator space on the third and fourth floors.

It is also dealing with a vacancy left by BakerHostetler, which signed a 16-year lease on 45,121 square feet at BNY Mellon Center at 1735 Market St. in the Central Business District. It had been in 80,000 square feet at Cira Centre.

*Article courtesy of The Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Biomeme Signs Deal to Double Space, Relocate Center City Headquarters

Biomeme Inc., a diagnostic startup behind a rapid Covid-19 test, has signed a lease on 44,000 square feet to relocate its headquarters, lab and production space to 401 N. Broad St. in Center City.

The company is currently housed in about 20,000 square feet at 1015 Chestnut St. and has grown during the pandemic as a result of its Covid test, which also detects variants that have been transmitted around the world.

The company, which previously invented a medical device called a PCR thermocycler that allows users to analyze DNA from an iPhone, received a $3 million grant from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to help fund the build-out of its new headquarters at 401 N. Broad, where it signed a 10-year lease.

Biomeme will join Nerd Street Gamers, another new tenant to the building. Last year, Nerd Street leased 35,000 square feet at 401 N. Broad and will relocate its headquarters to the 11-story, 1.3-million-square-foot building.

“Having Nerds and Biomeme changes the profile of that building in a big way,” said Gary Lozoff, a broker with Tactix Real Estate Advisors who represented Biomeme. Christian Dyer of CBRE Inc. represented Netrality Data Centers, the landlord.

“It’s no coincidence we’re getting the next generation of companies,” said Gerald M. Marshall, CEO of Netrality. “What’s really interesting about Nerd Street and Biomeme is the infrastructure and connectivity that our telecom tenants and customers bring to the building. What makes our systems reliable is we have dual power, generators, backup generators, and all of that makes the systems robust and really drives the reliability these folks look for. It’s really the starting point for both of these deals.”

The building at 401 N. Broad was originally constructed in 1930 for Reading Co. and was redeveloped into one of the most important telecom hotels along the East Coast. The property is considered the most fiber-dense, network-neutral facility between New York and Virginia, making it ideal for a tenant such as Nerd Street.

There were other characteristics of the building that appealed to Biomeme for its lab and manufacturing operations such as heavy floor loading, wide column spacing, high ceilings, redundant electric utility feeds, mechanical systems that have supply and exhaust air ventilation, as well as secure loading docks.

It took a while for Biomeme to decide upon 401 N. Broad. Lozoff was hired by the company in April 2020 as it was finalizing the rapid Covid test and ramping up production. It decided to look for space that would accommodate all of the uses it needed including lab, headquarters, manufacturing and fulfillment rather than split them up into two different locations. Once that approach was finalized, the search was on.

“They had no desire to be in University City,” Lozoff said.

Outside of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, University City is where life sciences companies have clustered in Philadelphia. However, options and timing didn’t work in University City and the company also couldn’t find space that had some other attributes important to it such as space with lots of natural light and expansive floorplates.

It looked at space in Kensington but that didn’t work when it came to minimizing dislocation of employees. It finally focused on East of Broad and zeroed in on 401 N. Broad.

Though the rail station is further away compared to its space at 10th and Chestnut, it has access to the Rail Park. As part of the deal with Biomeme, Netrality is replacing the windows in its space that will allow some to be operable as well as double the size of the building’s bike room to accommodate 60 bikes. North Broad is also undergoing increased development activity and a renaissance.

“There is some risk to ultimately going to 401 N. Broad,” Lozoff said. “No other company doing what they do is located in that geography.”

Not yet. Netrality has decided to focus on attracting life sciences companies to the building, which is a tact many landlords are exploring as demand for space by these companies has increased as traditional office space has waned.

“We have identified 100,000 square feet of space that works for life science companies,” Marshall said.

Biomeme has taken roughly half of that, leaving another 51,866 square feet that Netrality is marketing to these firms. With the Nerd Street and Biomeme leases, the building now has 332,829 square feet of vacant space. The landlord is building out two lab spec suites of which one is 3,065 square feet and the other 3,754 square feet.

*Article courtesy of The Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

New labs and offices to rise at Navy Yard as part of recently chosen team’s first $400M phase of development

Ensemble Real Estate Investments and Mosaic Development Partners are preparing to break ground on two new biotech buildings at the Navy Yard, their first projects since being selected last year to lead an expected $2.5 billion in fresh development over 109 acres of the former barracks in South Philadelphia.

The two life-science projects ― a lab and office building and a drug-manufacturing plant ― are part of a first phase of development under the deal that Ensemble and Mosaic struck with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which manages the Navy Yard on the city’s behalf.

That initial phase is expected to involve $400 million in new construction and to include the Navy Yard’s first residential properties, the companies and PIDC said in a release on Tuesday.

“Commencement of [these] initial life sciences projects will launch the next exciting chapter of development at the Navy Yard,” said Kate McNamara, a PIDC vice president. They “will bring high-quality jobs to the Navy Yard, support growing companies in the advanced life-sciences sector, and contribute to development of this dynamic campus.”

Ensemble developed the Navy Yard’s Marriott hotel and later acquired several other buildings there — including the headquarters of FS Investments and WuXi AppTec.’s biotech-manufacturing lab — from the tract’s previous main developer, Liberty Property Trust.

Ensemble is now the largest private property owner at the former base, with 10 buildings there under its ownership.

Mosaic has led projects in Philadelphia neighborhood involving $120 million in investment since 2012, including the Eastern Lofts apartments in Brewerytown.

The Navy Yard, which employed 40,000 at its peak, came under city ownership in 2000 after the U.S. Defense Department decommissioned the site as a military base.

Under PIDC’s watch, Liberty Property Trust turned a centrally located 80-acre section of the former barracks into what is known as the Corporate Center, a collection of contemporary buildings — some by renowned architects — comprising 800,000 square feet of office and lab space.

When Liberty decided in 2018 to cease work on office projects such as those at the Navy Yard, nearly all of the Corporate Center’s development parcels had been built on or spoken for, setting the stage for the next phases of work at the 1,200-acre South Philadelphia tract.

Ensemble and Mosaic were selected by PIDC in July to lead that work.

The team’s first new building is to be a three-story, 100,000-square-foot lab and office building that would rise at 1201 Normandy Place, near the Corporate Center Development, Ensemble and Mosaic said Tuesday.

It will be built as a “speculative” project, meaning that work will begin without having tenants lined up for the space, and is expected to be completed before the end of next year, the companies said.

Ensemble and Mosaic will also soon begin marketing another nearby property, at 333 Rouse Blvd., as a development site for life-science companies seeking a custom-built drug-manufacturing plant, the developers said.

That property can accommodate a facility of up to 120,000 square feet, they said.

Future tenants of the planned buildings also may be eligible for breaks on some city and state taxes through the Navy Yard’s designation as a Keystone Opportunity Zone if they create enough jobs or invest enough money there.

“The Navy Yard is a critical component in the growth of life-science companies in the region,” said Mark Seltzer, an Ensemble senior vice president for development. “Our new buildings will create much-needed inventory.”

The construction sites are near a 12-acre section of the Navy Yard that’s being called the Historic Core District, which PIDC has said would become the Navy Yard’s “downtown.”

The area, largely bounded by 11th and 12th Streets, between Flagship Avenue and Normandy Place, is seen as accommodating 1,000 to 1,500 apartments in restored buildings, along with restaurants and shops to serve residents and nearby office workers and lab techs, PIDC officials have said.

The other site in the new development push is being called the Mustin District, after the former Henry C. Mustin Naval Air Facility airfield that once occupied much of the tract. Its 97 acres extend east from League Island Boulevard.

Officials have said the district could support as much as three million square feet of new office, lab, and production space, emulating the Corporate Center’s atmosphere, and could also potentially accommodate residential buildings along its quarter-mile waterfront.

This “represents a unique opportunity to build community and add density, while making the most of the waterfront access and incredible open spaces that have already grown in use and importance during this past year,” said Mosaic co-founder Leslie Smallwood-Lewis.

*Article courtesy of The Inquirer

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

One South Broad turns to lab conversion to fill vacant Wells Fargo office space

One South Broad St., a 464,000-square-foot building, is the latest Philadelphia office property to enter the life sciences fray.

Aion Partners of New York, which owns the 26-story building, is marketing 108,418 square feet over floors three through eight as space that can be converted into labs. The six contiguous floors were vacated last year by Wells Fargo, which relocated to Two Logan Square.

Landlords in Philadelphia and its suburbs are sensing an opportunity in the region’s growing life sciences sector and looking to convert vacant office space into lab space. About 1 million square feet or more of these tenants are being tracked in the Philadelphia market.

Examples of buildings in Philadelphia that are in the midst of a conversion or are being considered for labs include converting several floors in Cira Centre, turning some space in the Curtis into labs, and evaluating whether to transform several floors in the Wanamaker.

Not every building is a candidate for conversion and there are several minimum requirements that allow for space to be adapted into labs. For example, ceilings need to be at least 15 feet high to house mechanical duct work. Floor load, or the amount of weight it can handle, is important for lab equipment. Mechanical systems, ventilation, electrical power redundancies and vibration mitigation are also crucial to accommodate lab space.

Life sciences companies tend to gravitate to locations that are already hubs of research and educational institutions such as University City, though that doesn’t mean Center City or suburban locations aren’t conducive for these firms.

A study of the space at One South Broad was conducted to ascertain whether lab space would work in the building, which was constructed in 1932 by John Wanamaker during the Great Depression for his men’s department store.

The ceiling height in the building ranges from 16 feet to 20 feet, which provides enough room for mechanicals necessary for lab space. Old elevator shafts can be used for air circulation and exhaust.

Rents on the space will run in the mid-$40s a square foot.

Aion Partners bought One South Broad in 2014 for $68 million. At the time, it was 88% occupied with Wells Fargo as its anchor tenant, leasing 33% of the property until 2020.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Shorenstein Secures $223 Million Refinancing of Philadelphia Office High-Rise

Shorenstein Properties has tapped into the commercial mortgage-backed securities market to refinance its 1818 Market St. Class A office building in downtown Philadelphia, according to analysis of the loan being rolled into a new offering likely to come to market next week.

Barclays Capital Real Estate provided a two-year, floating-rate, interest-only loan totaling $222.9 million, according to S&P Global Ratings. The loan has three 12-month extension options. Barclays has contributed the loan to a CMBS deal, BSST 2021-1818.

Shorenstein officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CoStar News.

The loan is secured by the 37-story, 999,828-square-foot multitenant building.

Shorenstein purchased the property in April 2015 for $184.75 million, or about $188 per square foot, according to CoStar data. Bank of America had provided $174 million in acquisition financing.

Since that deal, Shorenstein has spent $94 million through last month on renovations, tenant improvements and leasing costs, according to S&P Global. The property was appraised at $282.1 million for the purposes of the refinancing.

The refinancing returned about $44 million in equity to Shorenstein, S&P Global said.

The largest tenant in the property is WSFS Financial, after which the building is named, which occupies 96,800 square feet in a lease that runs through 2028. WSFS, which has it headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, took over the space in its March 2019 purchase of Beneficial Bancorp, for which the building was previously named.

In its CMBS presale analysis, S&P Global said it believes there remains high, but moderating, uncertainty about the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic effects.

Shorenstein is facing at least one other major loan maturity this year. It has a $350 million CMBS loan coming due in November on its 1.1 million-square-foot 1407 Broadway office building in New York.

*Article courtesy of CoStar

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Corporate Suites, a New York Co-working Operator, Takes Space at 123 S. Broad

Corporate Suites, a coworking operator based in New York, has signed a 15-year lease on 24,000 square feet at 123 S. Broad St. in Center City, making its first foray into Philadelphia.

The firm will occupy the 15th floor of the office building and expects to be in operation by September.

Though co-working struggled during the pandemic with some operators such as WeWork closing locations and others, such as Regus, filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on some spaces it leased, there is a belief coworking will regain some of its popularity as people seek alternatives to working from home as the pandemic dissipates.

SSH Real Estate, which owns 123 S. Broad, felt the building was lacking in not having a coworking tenant and had sought Corporate Suites as a tenant.

“The deal was in the works early last year but was delayed because of the coronavirus,” said Pete Soens, a partner at SSH Real Estate.

When talks picked back up, it became apparent to Soens that certain types of coworking will be in high demand as people get back to in-person work.

“We like their business model,” Soens said. “It’s a different model than WeWork. It’s more for professionals, small companies and individuals. We think with the location of 123 across from the Union League and near City Hall, we think the business professional will be drawn to it.”

The shape of the floor that Corporate Suites will occupy will enable it to provide more private offices, small suites, and some coworking areas versus a completely open office plan, Soens said.

The Corporate Suites model includes short-term leases on fully furnished suites and provides conference rooms and office services. SSH is anticipating the firm could eventually expand into another floor and doubling in size.

SSH plans to leverage Corporate Suites services as an amenity for some of the smaller tenants it has in the building and even look to capture some of those who use the space and may later need formal office space.

With this lease, 123 S. Broad reaches 70% occupancy as it chips away at about 150,000 square feet of space vacated by Wells Fargo.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

For more information about Philadelphia office space for sale or lease in Philadelphia or about any other Philadelphia properties for sale or lease, please contact WCRE at 215-799-6900.

Wolf Commercial Real Estate, a full-service CORFAC International brokerage and advisory firm, is a premier Philadelphia commercial real estate broker that provides a full range of Philadelphia commercial real estate listings and services, property management services, and marketing commercial offices, medical properties, industrial properties, land properties, retail buildings and other Philadelphia commercial properties for buyers, tenants, investors and sellers.

Please visit our websites for a full listing of Philadelphia commercial properties for lease or sale through our Philadelphia commercial real estate brokerage firm.

AmerisourceBergen Readies for Summer Move to New HQ at Sora West in Conshohocken

As the development of office component of Sora West in Conshohocken draws to a completion over the next several months, AmerisourceBergen Corp. has already begun preparing for its move into its new headquarters this summer.

As such, the Fortune 50 pharmaceutical distributor will join a growing list of companies that have faced the ordeal of relocating into new offices during a pandemic – Toll Brothers Inc., Macquarie, Fisher Phillips — or just weeks before employees were sent to work from home last March as in the case of Signant Health in Blue Bell.

Some firms preparing to move into new headquarters, such as Hamilton Lane, have already decided they don’t need as much space as anticipated. In October 2019, Hamilton Lane signed a lease to occupy 130,000 square feet at Seven Tower Bridge, which is under construction in Conshohocken. Last summer, it had decided to shed one of those floors and expects to occupy about 100,000 square feet.

New spaces has also meant an opportunity to reimagine and reconfigure portions of their new offices to accommodate changes brought on by the coronavirus. Many of these alterations, which were foreign just a year ago, have now become commonly accepted and expected.

At the groundbreaking of its new $200 million headquarters at 2222 Market St. last September, Morgan Lewis executives confirmed the law firm remained committed to the building but would evaluate the interior design through a new lens brought on by the coronavirus and employees working from home.

In the case of AmerisourceBergen, there are “some in-office experiences that may differ from our original plans prior to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Lauren Esposito, spokeswoman at the company, in an email.

At its new 11-story, 429,122-square-foot building at 125 E. Elm St., the company is installing furniture, products and coverings that can be easily cleaned and disinfected, and have picked fabrics that can be bleached as needed, Esposito said. Offices and cubicles will be “safely” spaced and the company intends to clean, every day on an hourly basis, all high-touch points as part of a new, standard office protocols.

The company also put in touch-free appliances, such as drinking dispensers, soap machines and water faucets.

“We are using science and data to make decisions and validate recommendations and procedures,” she said. “We rely on CDC and WHO guidelines as guidance continues to evolve. We have also engaged an external medical advisor to provide an objective interpretation of these guidelines to help us make the right decisions for our company.”

As originally planned, AmerisourceBergen (NYSE: ABC) intends to occupy the entire building but it will carve out a “small portion” of the space that will not have any offices and will be used as needed “to keep our employees comfortable, healthy and safe.” About 1,500 employees are expected to work out of the building.

In the meantime, the company continues to have its employees work remotely here and across its other offices and is taking a measured approach to returning to physical offices including at its new home in Conshohocken.

“While we remain hopeful that we can return to the office this summer, we must continue to work within a fluid timeline while we reassess the multiple factors that go into a phased re-entry plan across the enterprise in order to keep our employees safe,” Esposito said.

In addition to AmerisourceBergen’s offices, Sora West will include a new hotel and two restaurants. Keystone Property Group, the developer, officially broke ground on the project in April 2019 and this month moved forward with construction of the hotel.

*Article courtesy of Philadelphia Business Journal

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