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The game of musical chairs among Class-A office buildings in Center City, Philadelphia, continues.
Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co., a division of Japan-based Tokio Marine Group, has signed a lease for nearly 150K SF at 1700 Market St., the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. It will relocate three blocks east from its 141K SF footprint at Two Commerce Square, where it has been headquartered for 18 years, in late 2020.
The lease continues 1700 Market's momentum for San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties, which purchased the building in 2016 and has been renovating it since. In January, it announced seven new leases totaling 85K SF, including brokerage firm HFF, which moved from Conshohocken into its new Center City digs late last year.
Reliance's move will allow the insurer to add 127 employees in the next three years, according to a statement Gov. Tom Wolf's office provided to the Inquirer. The state awarded Reliance $631K in job-creation and development incentives for the move.
Commerce Square, the 1980s-era, two-building complex at 20th and Market streets, has now seen two large office tenants announce their departure in the past month. Each of them will be taking over 140K SF at their next location.
In August, Australia's Macquarie Investment Management revealed its plans to move into 145K SF at the former Dow building overlooking Independence Hall at Sixth and Market streets. The largest financial services firm in the city in terms of employee count will be the renovated building's anchor tenant after Dow moved to Collegeville.
It has not all been bad news this year for Commerce Square landlord Brandywine Realty Trust. Ireland-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals announced its intent to expand into 46K SF at One Commerce Square in May. It currently occupies 11K SF on a sublease at Two Commerce Square.
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