Monday, February 2, 2026
Eli Lilly unveils plans for $3.5B manufacturing campus in Lehigh Valley
by Amy Unger, Bo Koltnow WFMZ69
Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company is building a manufacturing campus in the Lehigh Valley, a multi-billion-dollar project that promises to create hundreds of new jobs.
Eli Lilly Chair and Chief Executive Officer David Ricks was joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and several state and Lehigh County leaders in making the announcement Friday morning at the Da Vinci Science Center in downtown Allentown.
Lilly is purchasing a site on Main Street (Old U.S. 22) in the Fogelsville section of Upper Macungie Township to build what will be its first manufacturing center in Pennsylvania. The property, known as the Fogelsville Corporate Center near Adams Rd. and I-78, is currently undeveloped agricultural land owned by David Jaindl.
Plans call for 925,000 square feet of manufacturing space across multiple buildings. The project is expected to create 850 jobs over the next five years.
According to the governor's office, Eli Lilly's $3.5 billion investment is the largest by a life sciences company in state history. It's also the largest single economic development project in Lehigh Valley history, the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) said.
"I meant what I said, the fact that this is a company on the leadership of Dave Ricks, where they could place this facility anywhere in the globe, and yet they made a commitment to investing in the United States of America through these four sites," Shapiro said.
The company was wooed to the area thanks in part to a $100 million funding proposal from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).
The DCED pledged up to $50 million in tax credits through the PA Edge Tax Credit Program, a $25 million grant through the Pennsylvania Strategic Investments to Enhance Sites (PA SITES) Program, and a $25 million Pennsylvania First grant.
The state has also committed to providing a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) award of up to $5 million to Lehigh Carbon Community College to help create a workforce development training program that would serve as a talent pipeline for the company in the Lehigh Valley.
In addition, Lilly is receiving an assist from the PA Permit Fast Track Program, which was created by Gov. Shapiro in November 2024 to streamline the permitting process for economic development and infrastructure projects that are deemed priorities.
“Before I took office, Pennsylvania wasn’t even in the conversation for major investments like this, but thanks to our work to cut red tape, invest in site development, and expand our workforce, our Commonwealth is now competing – and winning – on a national scale," said Shapiro. "Lilly’s commitment to the Lehigh Valley and to Pennsylvania will bring billions of dollars of investment and hundreds of good-paying jobs, solidifying our position as a leader in the growing life sciences industry.”
Friday, January 30, 2026
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Investors are returning to office property sector
By Phil Mobley, Chad Littell CoStar Analytics
Workers were not the only ones coming back to offices last year.
Stable interest rates, improving supply-and-demand fundamentals and broader agreement on pricing underpinned a surge in building sales in the beleaguered sector. Office sales volume for 2025 was more than $56 billion, an increase of $10 billion from 2024, according to CoStar’s preliminary year-end figures. The year-over-year sales increase of more than 20% far exceeded that of the other major property sectors.
Several factors contributed to the rebound. For commercial real estate generally, a more favorable interest rate environment was perhaps paramount. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, a key benchmark rate for commercial real estate investment, began 2025 above 4.5%. By the fourth quarter, it had come down to around 4.1%, and has since remained reasonably close to that level.
While borrowing costs are still higher than typical in the last economic cycle, recent rate stability has given investors more confidence to move forward with loans and purchases. Thus, overall sales of commercial real estate rose more than $25 billion in 2025, with every major property sector clocking an increase.
Within the office sector, a tighter occupancy market also played a key role in attracting increased investment. The national vacancy rate peaked in the middle of 2025, and net absorption, or the change in net occupancy, turned positive for the first time in several years. In some strong markets, like New York and Dallas, the inflection point came even earlier. Meanwhile, a generationally small construction pipeline is likely to constrain future availability for some time to come.
Price stability was one result of these improved conditions. According to the CoStar Commercial Repeat Sales Value-weighted Index, commercial property pricing stayed essentially flat throughout 2025 after three years of precipitous declines. Capitalization rates also held steady at about 200 basis points above their level from late 2021.
While values are still approximately 45% below the cyclical peak, the stabilization suggests that buyer interest in investment-grade multitenanted office assets is returning. While the risks have not disappeared, the prospect of capitalizing on lower property values has brought even some institutional buyers back off the sidelines.
Institutional buyers accounted for about 40% of transacted office value in the late 2010s, but their share began to fall sharply in early 2022. By 2024, they were involved in less than 20% of purchased office value. Occupiers and private buyers helped fill some of the gap, though many office building trades simply did not occur — as evidenced by depressed sales volumes in 2023 and 2024.
Last year, however, the institutional share of buying activity picked up again, ending the year above 25%. The return of these buyers was a major driver of the outsized increase in office sales activity, which accounted for its largest share of overall commercial property transaction volume since 2021.
It remains to be seen whether the resurgence of office investment activity represents the beginning of a new trend or a temporary aberration. Despite the increase, overall office sales in 2025 were still only about half the typical transaction value in the late 2010s. Furthermore, the office sector’s share of overall investment sales volume has been declining for a decade, from more than 30% to closer to 15%.
Even so, the rebound in 2025 office sales indicates that at least some investors are demonstrating restored conviction about the sector. The prospect of acquiring office assets at a basis well below replacement cost offers these buyers both the time and the potential flexibility to earn an outsized return. For an increasing number of them, office has now become worth the risk.
Monday, January 26, 2026
Philadelphia’s retail lease listings dominated by older properties
By Brenda Nguyen CoStar Analytics
The amount of available retail space across Philadelphia is hovering at a multi-decade low, following several years of resilient retail demand. At the end of 2025, Philadelphia had just 17.6 million square feet of available retail space, a 5.5 million-square-foot decrease from the previous space availability peak of 23.1 million square feet at the end of 2020.
Despite several notable national retail closures in the past year, the local retail property market remains on stable footing heading into the new year. The amount of available retail space has stayed relatively flat since 2024.
The constrained supply of Philadelphia retail space is most pronounced among newer properties. Of the 17.6 million square feet of retail space currently available, only 1.1 million square feet were built after 2009—less than 7% of the total retail availability.
Only nine spaces larger than 20,000 square feet are available in buildings constructed after 2010, severely limiting expansion options for big-box retailers, grocery stores and warehouse clubs looking to expand in the area. Most new, large-format options are available as proposed developments or pad site opportunities.
The scarcity of newer retail space options stems from Philadelphia's position as one of the nation's oldest retail markets. Most retail properties in the region were built before and during the mid-1990s. As such, retail properties constructed before 1980 account for 9.7 million square feet, or nearly 60%, of Philadelphia's total amount of available retail space.
Meanwhile, retailers' strong preference for newer space has created a bifurcated market. While competition for newer buildings is hyper-competitive, older properties continue to languish on the market, grappling with obsolescence.
This forces retailers with expansion plans to wait for tenant turnover to open up opportunities in existing modern centers, or pin their hopes on growing momentum for retail redevelopment and new development.
Looking ahead, at least 6.8 million square feet of additional retail space is in various proposal stages, suggesting that once borrowing costs moderate, construction prices stabilize, and rent growth firms, shopping center development could rebound. In the meantime, many expanding retailers are focused on backfilling second‑generation space left behind by bankrupt or rightsizing chains.
Friday, January 23, 2026
Villanova University acquires 8-acre site between Cabrini Campus and St. Davids Golf Club
By Ryan Mulligan – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
Villanova University has acquired an 8.3-acre residential parcel adjacent to its soon-to-open Cabrini Campus as the school continues to expand its Main Line footprint.
The private university paid $2.25 million for the property at 1250 Upper Gulph Road, according to Chester County property records. The parcel sits at the border of Chester and Delaware counties between the Cabrini Campus in Radnor and St. Davids Golf Club in Wayne.
The seller was Janice Taylor Gordon, who had owned the residential property since 1969, property records show.
Representatives for Villanova did not respond to requests for comment.
Villanova acquired Cabrini University's former 112-acre campus after the school closed its doors in spring 2024. It plans to reopen the campus to its students in the fall.
An adjacent property at 1290 Upper Gulph Road was acquired by Villanova as part of its 2024 deal with Cabrini. The university paid $11.5 million for Cabrini's physical campus, in addition to $45 million to cover the defunct school's long-term debt.
The 1250 Upper Gulph Road property is near a turf athletic field and the campus's 100,000-square-foot Dixon Center and Thomas P. Nerney Pavilion, which houses a fitness center, indoor pool, basketball courts and locker rooms.
Villanova is investing some $75 million to renovate and repurpose buildings on the former Cabrini campus. Villanova President Rev. Peter M. Donahue has pointed to the athletic and recreational facilities as being less in need of renovation than other buildings on the campus.
Full story: https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2026/01/21/villanova-main-line-acquisition-cabrini-campus.html
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