By Katie Burke CoStar News
In Philadelphia, office tour activity is on the rise as tenants hunt for larger amounts of space. Brandywine Realty Trust is one firm widening its bet on the market's brightening dynamics with a deal to acquire its joint venture partner's stake in a prominent Philadelphia development.
The real estate investment trust dropped $70.5 million to become the sole owner of the mixed-use tower at 3025 John F. Kennedy Blvd., a property split between office and residential that spans about 570,000 square feet. The Philadelphia-based firm, one of the project's original developers, initially had a 66% stake in the project.
The buyout deal is a small slice of the REIT's burgeoning optimism in the national office market's recovery.
"From an overall standpoint, the real estate markets and overall sentiment continue to improve," Brandywine CEO Jerry Sweeney told analysts on the company's recent earnings call. "Our pipeline activity continues to grow, tour volume remains at very healthy levels, rent levels and concession packages remain very much in line with our business plan and in select submarkets and buildings, and we continue to push both nominal and effective rents."
The 200,000-square-foot office portion of the 28-story building at the heart of the REIT's Schuylkill Yards development finished in 2023, and speaks to the demand Brandywine is seeing for "high-quality, highly amenitized buildings."
The offices are more than 90% leased to tenants including law firm Goodwin Procter and financial services provider Future Standard. The 326 multifamily units spread across the upper levels of the project are 99% occupied.
Brandywine declined to disclose the identity of its global institutional investment partner. The buyout deal, which closed earlier this month, also meant the REIT has assumed responsibility for the $178 million construction loan the joint venture took out to finance the roughly $325 million project. That debt is scheduled to mature in July, and CEO Jerry Sweeney said he is weighing whether to refinance the property next year in order to cut down on interest expenses.
“With the debt coming due, we think we have some positive refinancing outcomes at a very straightforward level,” Sweeney said. He added that the construction loan for the building is currently held to an 8% interest rate. If the REIT decided to refinance, Brandywine could net an annual savings of about $4 million.
Brightened outlook
To be clear, Brandywine is still slogging through some residual pandemic-related impacts that have resulted in declining occupancy and a challenged leasing landscape across its office portfolio. The landlord signed about 343,000 square feet of new and renewal deals throughout the quarter ended Sept. 30, boosting its total leased rate to just shy of 90.5% — a slight but steady boost compared to the same period last year.
Yet the ingredients for a widespread recovery, such as larger spatial requirements among tenants and boosted leasing activity, are pushing a number of the nation's largest landlords to widen their bets on the market's continued improvement.
BXP, for example, has kicked off construction for two ground-up developments in New York and Washington, D.C. Tishman Speyer recently closed its first Manhattan office purchase since 2019. And Kilroy Realty is drawing up plans for its long-awaited Flower Mart development in San Francisco.
