A weekly compilation of the Philadelphia metro's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email matthew.rothstein@bisnow.com.
Though the portion of the U.S. office market still able to attract new tenants is rapidly shrinking, two campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs have experienced leasing success in the past few months.
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Keystone Development + Investment has signed 50K SF of new leases at a 270K SF, two-building suburban office redevelopment named Rosetree in the Delaware County suburb of Media, at the meeting of two of the town's main thoroughfares, U.S. routes 1 and 252. The largest of the six deals Keystone signed for this year is the 14K SF leased by local accounting firm Brinker Simpson, which will be relocating from nearby Springfield in July.
Three of the leases began in the first quarter, with the other three kicking off between July and September; four leases are for tenants new to the building, with the other two being expansions. Keystone purchased Rosetree, formerly Rosetree Corporate Center, as part of an office portfolio it acquired from Mack-Cali Realty Corp. in 2013.
LEASES
Camden County has signed a lease for 154K SF at the Woodcrest Corporate Center in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, bringing the two-building, 386K SF complex to 100% leased. The deal with the county is the seventh arranged by JLL on behalf of owner Crown Properties since the latter purchased Woodcrest just before the pandemic's outbreak in early 2020. With new tenants, including Penn National Gaming, Radian and Jefferson Health System, Crown and JLL have signed 325K SF in new leases in just over two years.
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Two new tenants have combined to lease up the entirety of 100 Industrial Drive in the Lehigh Valley municipality of Stockertown after owner Katz & Sterling renovated the 105K SF property. The two leases, one to Cheap Cheap Moving Boxes and the other to freight shipping company J&A Transline, were arranged by Lee Fittipaldi and Kim Jacobsen of Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania.
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RD Management has signed two leases at the Shops at Renaissance Square retail property in Marlton, a division of the Township of Evesham in South Jersey's Burlington County. One is for a new location of a breakfast restaurant named The Chicken or The Egg, known to its following as Chegg, and another for an adult daycare center called Town Square. RD Management also owns the neighboring Inwood at Renaissance Square multifamily building.
SALES
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Lamar Cos., a real estate investment firm based in northern New Jersey, has entered the Philadelphia market for the first time with the $60M purchase of the Shops at Valley Square, a lifestyle shopping center in the affluent Bucks County suburb of Warrington, Pennsylvania. Built in 2007, the Shops in Valley Square has added a mix of uses in recent years after beginning life as a pure-play, apparel-focused shopping center.
A joint venture of Poag Shopping Centers and Ares Management sold the 293K SF property, which includes 90K SF of office and medical office space on the second floor, after purchasing it in 2016 for $82M, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports.
An age-restricted townhome community and a 127K SF Wegmans are also part of the Shops at Valley Square development but were not included in the transaction, which was brokered by Marcus & Millichap affiliate Institutional Property Advisors. Lamar is on the hunt for a partner to develop an estimated $80M multifamily building behind the retail portion.
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Local car sales chain Piazza Auto Group has purchased Mercedes-Benz of West Chester, a 120K SF dealership building sitting on 10 acres in the Philly suburb of the same name. Nontraded, niche REIT Capital Automotive sold the property in a transaction brokered by Colliers' Rich Weitzman.
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