This Week’s Philadelphia Deal Sheet: Final UArts Building Sells Less Than A Year After Surprise Bankruptcy
Less than a year after the University of the Arts shocked students and faculty by suddenly shuttering and filing for bankruptcy, its Center City real estate holdings have been fully liquidated.
The ninth and final building in the 760K SF portfolio, Gershman Hall, a theater and learning space at 401-11 S Broad St., sold for $6.7M.
It went to DSA 401 Lifetime LLC, a company with ties to the Philadelphia real estate investment firm Lubert-Adler, according to court documents obtained by Axios.
The properties were expected to fetch a collective $87M when the collection first hit the market in November. The listings handled by JLL ended up garnering almost $67M.
Scout, the firm known for its redevelopment of the Bok Building, bought Hamilton and Furness Halls for $12.5M, the largest property sale to arise from the Delaware bankruptcy case.
Hamilton Hall at 320 S. Broad St. will likely become studios, workshops and gallery spaces, while affordable apartments for artists are planned for the adjacent Furness Hall.
PEOPLE
Colliers Executive Vice President Jeff Williams started his new position with the brokerage’s Philadelphia industrial team last week.
Williams has three decades of industrial real estate experience and has completed more than 75M SF of transactions in the sector. He mostly recently worked at JLL, where he was on the firm’s Northeast industrial team.
SALES
Rockefeller Group and MBK Real Estate plan to develop a 2M SF logistics park outside Harrisburg. The companies bought a 182-acre parcel in the suburb of Silver Spring and plan to begin construction immediately.
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SSH Building and Facility Services LLC, an affiliate of Philadelphia-based SSH Real Estate, has acquired the 25-person HVAC company K2B Enterprises.
LEASES
Two new restaurant options are coming to the Drexeline Town Center in Upper Darby, according to MCB Real Estate. Jersey Mike’s signed a lease and is expected to open this summer, and a sit-down breakfast spot called Turning Point will follow suit this fall.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Toll Brothers is opening a new single-family home community called Boxwood in Montgomery County. Construction is currently underway in Collegeville, where sales are expected to begin this spring. Pricing will begin at $1.2M.
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MCB Real Estate is nearing completion on its 60K SF Drexeline Medical Office Building, where leases have already been signed by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Delaware County Human Services.
