Developer Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp. is proposing a
38-story office tower on a long-empty lot east of City Hall, a sign of
confidence that Philadelphia will continue its run of keeping and attracting big corporate
tenants.
The West Conshohocken-based developer is under contract
to acquire the roughly 35,000-square-foot site at the northwest corner of 13th
and Market Streets from the estate of property investor Samuel Rappaport,
company president Donald Pulver said Monday.
The project represents a return to Center City for Oliver
Tyrone Pulver, which developed the office buildings at 1234 and 1600 Market St.
in the 1970s and 1980s but then shifted its focus to suburbs such as
Conshohocken.
A West
Conshohocken developer plans to build a 38-story office tower at the
long-vacant lot at 13th and Market Streets. The building could be ready for
occupancy by early 2020.
“The wind is
blowing a little bit back toward the city now, so that’s why we’re back,”
Pulver said. “The investment community seems to be high on downtowns.”
Planned is an 840,000-square-foot, glass-sheathed
structure with retail space, to be designed by architecture firm
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The building, which is being called 1301 Market
Street, should be ready for occupancy by early 2020.
Pulver said his company plans to close on the development
site after completing its permitting process and other predevelopment steps,
which are expected to take at least a year.
Pulver and his team will likely use the time before
completing the purchase to find anchor tenants willing to pay what likely will
be market-leading rents for space in the new building, said Bill Luff, founder
of commercial real estate consultancy CRE Visions.
“He’s buying time to see if the market will accept that
site for that rent in that time frame,” Luff said.
The 1301 Market Street tower would join a spate of sleek
new office high-rises reshaping the central Philadelphia skyline as companies
expand and others are lured by the area’s educated workforce, easy transit
connections, and hip urban vibe.
Among those projects are the just-completed FMC Tower on the eastern edge of University City
and Comcast Corp.’s second Center City skyscraper, the Comcast Technology Center, now
rising at 18th and Arch Streets.
“There’s a strong appetite for office development in
Center City,” said Michael Silverman, a managing director at Integra Realty
Resources in Philadelphia. “You can actually feel this excitement going on.”
Oliver Tyrone Pulver’s most recent projects locally
include the 1.5 million-square-foot Tower Bridge office and hotel complex in
Conshohocken. Currently under development at that site is the
225,000-square-foot Seven Tower Bridge office building, scheduled for
completion in 2018.
The site at 1301 Market St. was previously occupied by a
row of blighted buildings from the early 20th century that were cleared in the
1990s. The space is currently used as a parking lot.
If completed, the tower would be the first so-called
trophy-class office property in Philadelphia’s Market East sector east of City
Hall, traditionally a lower-end market, said Lauren Gilchrist, Philadelphia
research director at commercial real estate firm JLL.
But with Market East office rents now close to
those of the city’s main business corridor west of City Hall, Oliver Tyrone
Pulver’s plan for high-end offices there could be justified, Gilchrist said.
Also helping draw tenants are the Market East area’s high
concentration of train and subway stations and the stores and restaurants
opening to serve its growing residential population, said Robert Fahey, an
executive vice president at commercial real estate services firm CBRE in
Philadelphia.
Other projects in the area include the redevelopment of the Gallery at Market East
shopping mall and the East Market residential and retail complex on Market Street between 11th and 12th.
“That side of City Hall is transforming faster than any
other part of our central business district,” he said.
Source: Philly.com
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