Brandywine Spends $70M To Buy Out Partner In Prominent Philly Tower
Brandywine Realty Trust has taken full control of a high-profile mixed-use skyscraper overlooking 30th Street Station.
The publicly traded REIT spent $70.5M to buy its undisclosed partner’s stake in 3025 John F. Kennedy Blvd. earlier this month, CEO Jerry Sweeney said during its quarterly earnings call Thursday. A company spokesperson declined to reveal the seller’s identity.
Along with buying the stake, Brandywine assumed the $178M construction loan for the project that is set to mature in July.
The 200K SF office portion of the building is 92% leased and 24% occupied, while the 326 apartments are 98% leased.
“That took about 24 months from completion to stabilize,” Sweeney said of the building.
Brandywine completed construction in October 2023, the same month another Brandywine building at 3151 Market St. topped out. Both are part of the Schuylkill Yards complex, a mixed-use development partnership with Drexel University announced in 2016.
Construction at 3151 wrapped up in March. The 472K SF building is 60% life sciences space and 40% office. The company didn't say how much of the building has been leased.
“Tour activity remains robust, and the project has been very well received,” Sweeney said. “The life science market, as I noted, remains very much in a recovery mode.”
Greater Philadelphia’s life sciences market had a 16% vacancy rate last quarter, but that metric sat at 34% in the University City submarket where 3025 is located, according to CBRE.
Brandywine posted a net loss of $26.2M in the third quarter, according to its earnings report. Its core portfolio was about 90% leased.
The update came after the REIT announced plans to nearly halve its quarterly dividend from 15 cents to 8 last month.
The company said it planned to use the $50M in cash it saved with the dividend cut to help prepay a $245M secured loan, giving it unencumbered control of its roughly 120-property portfolio.
“This revised dividend represents a level that we expect to maintain for the foreseeable future,” Sweeney said in a statement at the time.
