A rare opportunity arises: New office construction on Swedesford Road in Wayne

One of the last remaining sites for office development in Tredyffrin is ready for development.

Arcadia Land Development took a 10-acre property at the corner of Swedesford Road and Old Eagle School Road through the approval process and is now marketing it as a for sale build-to-suit site. The property sits across from De Lage Landen’s office building and is now an overgrown field.

“I think because of the way Crosspoint leased up so quickly and that 1000 Continental is fully leased, this is the next Class A project,” said Jeff Mack of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, who has been retained to market it.

Up to 270,000 square feet in one or two buildings can be constructed on the site. Mack envisions it either as a medical office building or corporate use. A developer also has the option to acquire for a project.

“We’re very excited about this,” Mack said. “This will be a flagship for Swedesford Road.”

Mack declined to divulge how much an investor might pay for the 10 prime acres.

That part of Swedesford Road, which has a Wayne, Pa., address, has always been one of the western suburbs main office corridors.

In recent years, developers such as Liberty Property Trust and Keystone Property Group have acquired older vintage buildings along that strip and launched total redevelopments of them. In the last year, a partnership involving MIM-Hayden Real Estate Funds spent $30 million to gut and re-do 530 and 580 E. Swedesford Road in and rebrand the 272,000-square-foot building as Crosspoint at Valley Forge. Its quick lease up has been interpreted as tenants demanding not only basically brand new space but also offices with an array of amenities, such as a gym, cafe and comfortable common areas. Many older buildings don't have those offerings.

More development could be on the way for Swedesford Road.

Eli Kahn of E. Kahn Development picked up earlier this year Saint-Gobain’s buildings at 750 E. Swedesford Road where it has three main office properties totaling roughly 175,000 square feet along with a smaller maintenance building on 20 acres. The structures are expected to eventually be razed to make way for new construction.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal