Chester Soccer stadium and more

"The Buccini/Pollin Group of Wilmington provided an update for its project, the Wharf at Rivertown, the Philadelphia Union soccer stadium and its related residential and commercial projects in Chester. Here’s the latest: The $110 million, 18,500 seat stadium is near completion and scheduled to open this summer; a new I-95 on/off ramp is set to be completed by late fourth quarter; a new 30,000-square-foot office building remains in the design stages; and an existing 400,000-square-foot office building is nearly fully leased. At build out, plans call for constructing 180 townhouses, 225 apartments, 42,000 square feet of retail space, a 200,000-square-foot convention center, 435,000 square feet of new office space and structured parking with 1,350 spaces. With any project of this scale and in shifting markets, plans change but so far the developer has 30 acres prepped for the new development

... Gateway Business Park at Fellowship Road and Gaither Drive in Mount Laurel, N.J., lined up three tenants totaling 63,000 square feet who renewed their leases. Jacobs Engineering, an engineering services provider based in Pasadena, Calif., renewed its lease of 36,000 square feet. The company has been at Gateway Business Park since 2003.

In another deal, Surgical Center of South Jersey, re-upped on 17,000 square feet. It has been a tenant at the park for 22 years. And in the last deal, Acteon, a manufacturer of electronic dental equipment based in France, re-signed for 9,886 square feet.

... RAIT Financial Trust (NYSE:RAS) closed out the year with losses but slightly less of a loss than it reported in 2008, reflecting how the company has been trying to manage its exposure to the mortgage market. The company recorded for the fourth-quarter earning $15.6 million, or 24 cents a diluted share, compared with a net loss of $505.9 million, or $7.78 a share during the same period in 2008. For the year, RAIT reported net loss of $441.2 million, or $6.77 total loss a share compared with $443.2 million, or $6.99 loss, last year, according to the company.

Some highlights: The company ended the year with fewer assets under management — $10.1 billion compared with $14.2 billion; reduced its debt from $517.4 million to $398.5 million; got the repayment of its debt extended to 2011 from 2009; and ended the year with $25 million of cash."