A publicly traded REIT offloaded an office property near the Philadelphia International Airport, and the buyer appears to be the city.
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Office Properties Income Trust revealed in its second-quarter earnings report that it sold its only Philadelphia property, a vacant office building at 8800 Tinicum Blvd., for $42M on July 30.
The 441K SF building was formerly occupied by PNC Bank, which decided to vacate in early 2024.
The sale hasn't yet appeared in property records. Its most recent assessment this year valued the property at $30.4M.
The Philadelphia City Council passed a bill in April authorizing the director of the Department of Aviation to acquire the 8800 Tinicum Blvd. property on behalf of the city.
The department didn't respond to Bisnow's request for comment on the sale.
OPI had previously planned to redevelop the property into a 478K SF industrial facility. The owner tapped Avison Young in April 2025 to lead leasing efforts for the planned redevelopment, but it never came to fruition.
Avison Young principal Jim Scott, whose team served as the leasing agent, told Bisnow it also represented OPI in selling the property.
The sale comes after OPI emerged from bankruptcy in June. The REIT, managed by The RMR Group, cut $714M in debt from its balance sheet after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October.
OPI's portfolio as of June 30 spanned 117M SF across 122 properties.
The company is now generating cash by selling assets. It said in its earnings report that it sold two properties last month, the Philly building and another in Redwood City, California, for $58.5M.
It also said it is under agreement to sell another nine properties in New York, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland and Colorado for $49.7M.
It has another 21 properties being marketed for sale, and it estimates the total proceeds of all the sales will reach $275M.
These sales "will be used to enhance liquidity and address debt maturities," President Yael Duffy said on OPI's earnings call.
Duffy divided the 32 properties put up for sale into three buckets: 14 well-located assets with strong tenancy that should fetch attractive prices, eight properties intended to reduce its exposure to specific markets such as Seattle and Washington, D.C., six properties with lease expiration risk and four vacant or soon-to-be vacant buildings that are a "drag on cash flow."
The latter bucket likely includes the Philadelphia building, which wasn't mentioned on the call.
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