Once an office building and now apartments, 1616 Walnut St. in Center City up for sale

A Philadelphia icon of sorts is up for sale and could trade for as high as $125 million.

The building at 1616 Walnut St. that was converted into apartments from office use and renamed Icon is being marketed for sale. This comes just months after the transformation of the building was completed and renters started moving in.

The 25-story building was bought in 2012 by a partnership involving Federal Capital Partners, Cross Properties and Alterra Property Group. Constructed as an office building in 1929 and used as such ever since, the new owners took on the task of relocating more than 100 office tenants that occupied the building in preparation of spending $50 million to convert the structure into multifamily use.

The building now has 206 apartments of which 143 are one-bedroom units. The average size of an apartment is 730 square feet. The property also has 160 parking spaces and some of its amenities include: a sky deck with a grilling station, herb garden, outdoor living area and fireplace; a private dining room with fireplace; club level with kitchen, pool table, and large-screen televisions; and a fitness floor with a yoga studio and massage room.

Icon opened to renters in April and has seen a steady lease up of about 20 units a month. It's now roughly 75 percent occupied. The property is commanding some of the highest residential rents in Philadelphia at $3.40 a square foot all of which highlights the strength of Center City’s multifamily market and why the apartment investment market continues to pick up steam. The property comes up for sale at a good time since there’s a lot of institutional capital chasing these types of deals.

The building, which is not far from Rittenhouse Square, also has 23,000 square feet of retail space along one of the most desirable retail corridors in the city. The space is occupied by Santander Bank, Theory, TownHome and Pizzeria Vetri.

The building is being marketed for sale by Jim Galbally and Erin Miller of Jones Lang LaSalle.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal