Monday, March 30, 2015

Brandywine Realty Trust to dip back into Bala Cynwyd office market



Brandywine Realty Trust has made a move to re-establish a presence in the Bala Cynwyd, Pa., office market and has entered into an agreement to buy 9 Presidential Blvd., for $4 million.

The property consists of a two-story, 27,000-square-foot office building.

L.F. Driscoll, a construction company, vacated the structure last year and decided to lease space at 401 City Ave. After making that move, an affiliate of the Driscoll family put 9 Presidential up for sale. Scott Gabrielsen of Binswanger and Jim Dugan of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank have the listing.


Brandywine (NYSE: BDN) said it plans weren't finalized for the property, but it expects to construct a 180,000-square-foot office building on the site, said Jerry Sweeney, CEO of the real estate company.

The property sits within a relatively new zoning district along the City Avenue corridor that promotes denser, mixed-use development that is more transit oriented and pedestrian friendly.

Brandywine is not a stranger to Bala Cynwyd.

The Radnor, Pa., real estate investment trust had at one time owned the Bala Pointe Office Center, a 170,000-square-foot structure at 111 Presidential Blvd. In a reflection of how times, markets and companies change, Brandywine sold the property in 2006 for $35.5 million as part of a plan it had then laid out to selectively sell properties it had determined to be non-core to its local office portfolio. The company said at the time it would invest in areas it thought were to be “higher-growth” and “strategically significant.” Radnor and Center City are among the local office markets that Brandywine is now a dominant player.

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