Saturday, April 11, 2015

High-profile site near the Liberty Bell sold


Brandywine Realty Trust bought this parking structure at 6th and Market streets in Philadelphia.

Brandywine Realty Trust has acquired a parking structure across from the U.S. Courthouse at 6th and Market streets in Center City, according to people familiar with the situation.

The five-story structure at 618-34 Market St. was sold by Richard Basciano, a New York real estate investor who owns several properties in Philadelphia.

Neither an official at Brandywine (NYSE: BDN) or Basciano could be reached for comment in spite of repeated attempts.

This is the first time Brandywine has taken a stake in the historic area of Philadelphia. However, other large real estate companies, such as Keystone Property Group, Rubenstein Partners and Brickstone Realty Cos., have started to take a liking to the neighborhood, showing their confidence that it has a bright future.

Brandywine has focused the last few years on building up its footprint in Center City. It is the dominant landlord of Class A and trophy office space along West Market Street in the Central Business District as well as in and around 30th Street Station. The garage serves as a bookend to its Philadelphia holdings as well as adds to its already large portfolio of parking it has in Philadelphia.

Basciano became a recognized name in Philadelphia in 2013 because a company he was affiliated with was the owner of building in the 2100 block of Market Street that fell onto a Salvation Army Thrift Store and killed seven people.

How much Brandywine paid couldn’t be determined. The structure was acquired by Basciano in 1997 for $6.65 million, according to Philadelphia property records, and now listed with a market value of $17 million.

Aside from the parking, the property has a small strip of street-level retail that is partially occupied by Dunkin Donuts, Shirt Corner and Geator Gold Radio. It sits next to the Dow building and is zoned CMX-5, which allows for dense mixed-use development. It’s presumed that if any future development occurred at the property it would either be on top of the existing structure or Brandywine could take down the existing structure and start anew.

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