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Liberty Property Trust appears to be fully exiting the Great Valley Corporate Center.
The company has had a presence in the Malvern business park since 1974, but it followed up its recent announcement of its intent to sell all of its suburban office assets with the revelation that it is moving its headquarters from Great Valley to an office in Wayne, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports.
When Liberty announced its directive to exit suburban office and focus on industrial real estate, its own headquarters was said to be excluded from any plans. Its next announcement, that of its new headquarters in Wayne, came just a week later. Liberty made no mention of its plans for the building it will be leaving in Great Valley.
Liberty has owned the four-story, 100K SF building at 650 East Swedesford Road, which was mostly vacant due to a tenant departure, for 10 years. Its move into the 25K SF fourth floor of the building comes with a $12M renovation, both updating the facade for a more modern, glassy look and redoing its floor to a completely open plan with breakaway rooms for quiet space.
The building still has one vacant floor, and, with the renovation, Liberty anticipates being able to drive the rent up to $27/SF, in line with Class-A offices for the King of Prussia/Wayne submarket that has been growing in popularity, Liberty Vice President and Market Officer Brian Cohen told the PBJ. Cohen is overseeing the redevelopment.
Liberty CEO William Hankowsky noted the live-work-play dynamic of the Wayne/King of Prussia area in explaining the decision to move headquarters.
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