This Week's Philadelphia Deal Sheet
Ashbridge Square, a 386K SF power retail center in the Chester County suburb of Downingtown, traded hands just before the end of 2022.
A joint venture of local developer-owners E. Kahn Development Corp. and J. Loew & Associates purchased Ashbridge Square at an undisclosed price from an affiliate of publicly traded shopping center landlord Site Centers Corp. Marcus & Millichap affiliate Institutional Property Advisors brokered the transaction. The center was 88% leased at the time of sale, anchored by Home Depot and JoAnn Fabrics.
Chester County property records have not yet been updated to reflect the sale. Site Centers purchased Ashbridge Square in 2015 for nearly $47M, those records show, or nearly $5M less than the previous owner had paid for it in 2011.
The center sits at 845-965 East Lancaster Ave., across the dense commercial corridor from another power center, Brandywine Square, which has a roster of tenants complementary with Ashbridge, anchored by a Wegmans supermarket.
LEASING
Jasper House, a mixed-use redevelopment of a former factory in Kensington, has signed Win Win Coffee Roasters to a lease for a wholesale roasting operation and storefront café on the ground floor. Win Win will be one of three Black-owned commercial tenants taking space on triple-net leases for only $10 per SF as part of the building owner's impact-focused business plan.
The development team of Sterling Wilson, the How Group and Southwood Properties already signed local agriculture entrepreneur Christa Barfield's FarmerJawn to operate a 3,200 SF garden in the building's courtyard and an 890 SF market storefront called CornerJawn. In addition to Win Win, the JV is in final negotiations to lease the rest of the 6,500 SF of light industrial/retail hybrid space to a local, Black-owned winery.
The $32M project at 1835 East Boston St. will also include 10 artist studios and 139 apartments, 20% of which will be restricted to tenants earning at most 80% of area median income for at least 10 years. Creative agency Cohere has been retained as a partner to help design the maker spaces. The building is expected to open in the middle of this year.
One clicks-to-bricks tenant that took space on Philly's retail high street has been replaced by another. Women's underwear and loungewear retailer ThirdLove opened its doors on Dec. 28 at 1611 Walnut St., which had previously been occupied by men's shirt company Untuckit.
ThirdLove is opening through a partnership with omnichannel retail platform Leap, which advertises itself as able to oversee "everything from leasing, technology, staffing and day-to-day operations for brands." Leap matched the Walnut Street site with ThirdLove from its list of partners, and is targeting additional storefronts in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood for openings in the next 12 months, as well as one in the King of Prussia Mall.
SALES
Northbridge Partners has acquired a 67K SF industrial property in the South Jersey township of Cinnaminson in a sale-leaseback transaction. The seller is Actega North America, a subsidiary of European materials company Altana, which will continue to occupy the entire building on a long-term basis. Northbridge was represented by Colliers Senior Managing Director Richard Gorodesky, who was the sole broker in the transaction.
