Star Group's former HQ on the market

The South Jersey building that was originally constructed as the headquarters for Star Group, a now defunct advertising firm, has come up for sale.

The two-story, 48,444-square-foot property is at 220 Laurel Road in the Voorhees Town Center in Voorhees, N.J. The office building was constructed in 2008 by Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust as a build-to-suit for Star Group. At the time, the advertising firm had roughly 300 employees working in the new space.

A lot has changed during those six years since the advertising firm moved into its new headquarters.

In July, the Star Group suddenly shuttered its operations after 30 years in business. Among its clients were Comcast, Teva, Fox Rothschild and Tropicana Entertainment. It had at that point, 170 employees. Founded in 1985, the company was called Rosanio Bailets & Talamo, or RB&T. After Lonny Strum became CEO in 1996, it was renamed RBT/Strum and later the Star Group.

The property is now vacant but for 8,000 square feet that is occupied by NFI Industries. The seller is PREIT and the property is being marketed by Anne Klein of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, who said no sale price has been set.

It wasn't the last change for the South Jersey community.

Just last October, PREIT (NYSE: PEI) closed on selling the Voorhees Town Center for $13.4 million though the office building was not part of that transaction. PREIT bought the retail property in 2003 as part of a portfolio acquisition from Rouse Co. and paid $18.3 million for the property.

PREIT invested around $80 million to totally redevelop the former Echelon Mall, which had totaled 1.1 million square feet and had two vacant anchor tenants. The millions of dollars transformed the retail center into a 732,000-square-foot vibrant mixed-use community that was renamed the Voorhees Town Center.

In addition to its South Jersey headquarters, Star Group also maintained offices in a four-story, 18,000-square-foot building in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood of Philadelphia at 235 S. 17th St. The property was originally constructed in 1893 as a 35-room mansion. It was later used as commercial office space and at one point was the headquarters for Urban Outfitters. It is owned by Allan Domb Real Estate, which is trying to re-lease the space.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal