"Sovereign Bank has agreed to a sale-leaseback of its 52,500-square-foot office building with the City of York for $2.7 million, or roughly $51 per square foot.
The property at 101 S. George St. in York, PA is a three-story office facility. It was built in 1978 on a 1.32-acre parcel in York County. Sovereign Bank will lease back the south wing on the first floor."
Thursday, April 7, 2011
GSK renews in King of Prussia, new Razorfish digs
by Natalie Kostelni
"GlaxoSmithKline renewed a huge lease in King of Prussia at the same time it entered into its celebrated deal with Liberty Property Trust to build a new building at the Navy Yard.
The pharmaceutical giant (NYSE:GSK) renewed a lease for 197,000 square feet of office space at 2301 Renaissance Blvd., according to Malvern-based real estate investment trust Liberty (NYSE:LRY).
Liberty also renewed Merion Publications, a health-care magazine publisher, for 76,000 square feet in two buildings at 2900 and 3100 Renaissance Blvd.
In other Liberty deals: Dynamic Solar signed a new lease for 6,745 square feet at 1550 Liberty Ridge Drive in its Chesterbrook Corporate Center in Berwyn, Arris renewed its lease of 4,770 square feet at 650 E. Swedesford Road in Wayne, and Avanceon has signed a new lease for 16,000 square feet at 180 Sheree Blvd. at Stone Ridge Office Park in Exton …
The Ayer has sold all of its condominiums. It was in 2005 that Goldenberg Group of Blue Bell and Brown Hill Development of Huntingdon Valley bought the building at 210 W. Washington Square that was the former headquarters for N.W. Ayer, a well-known advertising agency that came up with some memorable slogans. Among them: When it rains, it pours. A diamond is forever. Reach out and touch someone.
At any rate, back in 2007 the development team initiated a $75 million conversion of the former office building into 56 high-end condos ranging from $700,000 to $2 million-plus. In what is clearly a reflection of the state of the residential market, the sale of the final Ayer condo closed in late March, four years after it opened its doors.
Razorfish, an interactive marketing firm, is moving on up to the Wanamaker building at 100 Penn Square East in Center City from 417 N 8th St. The firm signed on to 23,587 square feet at the building and will employ 125 people there. The building is owned by Amerimar Enterprises … NetApp Inc., a storage and data management provider, signed a lease for 5,479 square feet at Valley Forge Office Center off Swedesford Road in Wayne for a new office location and will move into its new space in June. Laser Spine Institute expanded in the building by nearly 2,000 square feet and will now total 11,736 square feet. The two leases bring the six-building, 484,000-square-foot complex up to 85 percent occupied ...
Orbach Group of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., bought Hamilton Court East for $15.5 million. The complex off Exit 6 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bensalem is comprised of 15 buildings with 192 units."
"GlaxoSmithKline renewed a huge lease in King of Prussia at the same time it entered into its celebrated deal with Liberty Property Trust to build a new building at the Navy Yard.
The pharmaceutical giant (NYSE:GSK) renewed a lease for 197,000 square feet of office space at 2301 Renaissance Blvd., according to Malvern-based real estate investment trust Liberty (NYSE:LRY).
Liberty also renewed Merion Publications, a health-care magazine publisher, for 76,000 square feet in two buildings at 2900 and 3100 Renaissance Blvd.
In other Liberty deals: Dynamic Solar signed a new lease for 6,745 square feet at 1550 Liberty Ridge Drive in its Chesterbrook Corporate Center in Berwyn, Arris renewed its lease of 4,770 square feet at 650 E. Swedesford Road in Wayne, and Avanceon has signed a new lease for 16,000 square feet at 180 Sheree Blvd. at Stone Ridge Office Park in Exton …
The Ayer has sold all of its condominiums. It was in 2005 that Goldenberg Group of Blue Bell and Brown Hill Development of Huntingdon Valley bought the building at 210 W. Washington Square that was the former headquarters for N.W. Ayer, a well-known advertising agency that came up with some memorable slogans. Among them: When it rains, it pours. A diamond is forever. Reach out and touch someone.
At any rate, back in 2007 the development team initiated a $75 million conversion of the former office building into 56 high-end condos ranging from $700,000 to $2 million-plus. In what is clearly a reflection of the state of the residential market, the sale of the final Ayer condo closed in late March, four years after it opened its doors.
Razorfish, an interactive marketing firm, is moving on up to the Wanamaker building at 100 Penn Square East in Center City from 417 N 8th St. The firm signed on to 23,587 square feet at the building and will employ 125 people there. The building is owned by Amerimar Enterprises … NetApp Inc., a storage and data management provider, signed a lease for 5,479 square feet at Valley Forge Office Center off Swedesford Road in Wayne for a new office location and will move into its new space in June. Laser Spine Institute expanded in the building by nearly 2,000 square feet and will now total 11,736 square feet. The two leases bring the six-building, 484,000-square-foot complex up to 85 percent occupied ...
Orbach Group of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., bought Hamilton Court East for $15.5 million. The complex off Exit 6 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bensalem is comprised of 15 buildings with 192 units."
Friday, April 1, 2011
How to get $1 Billion for $7.8 Million
Capmark To Sell $1 Bil. Debt Advisory Business for $7.8 Mil.
"Capmark Financial Group Inc., a bank holding company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, plans to sell its interest in its non-bankrupt real estate debt investment advisory group business (Capmark Structured Real Estate Partners LP) for $7.8 million to an affiliate of Pacific Coast Capital Partners LLC.
The fund commenced operations in August 2006 for investing in U.S. real estate debt, including mortgage loans and securities, opportunistic loans, and high yield commercial mortgage backed securities. As of Dec. 31, 2010, the fund had called capital contributions of $1.06 billion.
There will be a bankruptcy court hearing on April 11 to approve auction and sale procedures. If the judge agrees with the schedule, other higher bids will be due April 22, followed by an auction on April 26."
"Capmark Financial Group Inc., a bank holding company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, plans to sell its interest in its non-bankrupt real estate debt investment advisory group business (Capmark Structured Real Estate Partners LP) for $7.8 million to an affiliate of Pacific Coast Capital Partners LLC.
The fund commenced operations in August 2006 for investing in U.S. real estate debt, including mortgage loans and securities, opportunistic loans, and high yield commercial mortgage backed securities. As of Dec. 31, 2010, the fund had called capital contributions of $1.06 billion.
There will be a bankruptcy court hearing on April 11 to approve auction and sale procedures. If the judge agrees with the schedule, other higher bids will be due April 22, followed by an auction on April 26."
Tilden Ridge Shopping Center Now Open
"The celebration of the grand opening of Tilden Ridge, a 400,000-square-foot regional shopping center was on March 15th. The center is located in Hamburg, Pennsylvania at the intersection of Route 61 and Route 78.
The developer, Ironwood Property Group from West Conshohocken, PA, has been working on Tilden Ridge for nearly six years. The center is 98 percent pre-leased with Wal-Mart Supercenter and Lowe's Home Improvement as anchors."
The developer, Ironwood Property Group from West Conshohocken, PA, has been working on Tilden Ridge for nearly six years. The center is 98 percent pre-leased with Wal-Mart Supercenter and Lowe's Home Improvement as anchors."
Farmers Insurance enters area, opens training center
by Jeff Blumenthal
"Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Agency, the nation’s third-largest insurance agency group, has moved into the Philadelphia region by opening a training and recruiting center here, where it plans to hire 100 agents this year and 500 within the next five years that could lead to as many as 2,500 new jobs in southeastern Pennsylvania when each agent hires staff. There are also plans to open a training and recruiting center in Cherry Hill in December, where the agency has similar growth plans.
Farmers signed a seven-year lease for more than 26,000 square feet of space at the end of last year and then opened the operations center, which it calls Agency Point, in January. It is home to more than 40 managerial and administrative employees and will be the center of growth for it to recruit and train agents as well as market the company.
Trainees will work out of the space at 1000 Continental Drive for a year — which includes a week of training in Farmers’ California headquarters to learn about business ownership and company history — before opening their own storefronts in various locales in southeastern Pennsylvania. Farmers will most likely avoid Center City for expansion but said it plans to spread its wings in the suburbs.
Matthew Dudash, director of Agency Point in the new southeastern Pennsylvania office, said the plan will be to hire 100 agents per year over the next five years, with each agent hiring between two to five staff. That could mean up to 2,500 new jobs in the region with another operations center opening in Cherry Hill at the end of the year with similar growth plans for South Jersey.
Formed in 1928, Farmers is one of the largest auto and home insurers in the nation and also offers life insurance and specialty policies for boats, recreational vehicles and jet skis. Most of its business lies west of the Mississippi River and it considers Allstate, Nationwide and State Farm its chief rivals.
Allstate spokesman Brett Ludwig said competition is always good for the market.
Allstate has 231 agents in southeastern Pennsylvania and averages 1.7 staff per agency location. It also has a training center in its local headquarters in Malvern that employs about 500 administrative staff.
Pennsylvania is the first new state Farmers has entered in 20 years. Dudash said the region was selected as Farmers’ entry point into the East Coast because of the large population and what it perceived to be a strong business environment.
“The demographic is ideal,” Dudash said. “It’s an established community with growth opportunity.”
Farmers has similar expansion plans for North and South Jersey at the end of this year and New York and Baltimore next year.
Dudash has been with Farmers for 15 years in Los Angeles and Las Vegas but is a Lehigh Valley native. He said he tested the Agency Point concept for Farmers in Ohio a few years back and found the agents it produced have a high success rate. So the company adopted it as its distribution model.
Dudash said Farmers has recruited by way of career fairs, job boards and advertising and has generated a great deal of interest."
"Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Agency, the nation’s third-largest insurance agency group, has moved into the Philadelphia region by opening a training and recruiting center here, where it plans to hire 100 agents this year and 500 within the next five years that could lead to as many as 2,500 new jobs in southeastern Pennsylvania when each agent hires staff. There are also plans to open a training and recruiting center in Cherry Hill in December, where the agency has similar growth plans.
Farmers signed a seven-year lease for more than 26,000 square feet of space at the end of last year and then opened the operations center, which it calls Agency Point, in January. It is home to more than 40 managerial and administrative employees and will be the center of growth for it to recruit and train agents as well as market the company.
Trainees will work out of the space at 1000 Continental Drive for a year — which includes a week of training in Farmers’ California headquarters to learn about business ownership and company history — before opening their own storefronts in various locales in southeastern Pennsylvania. Farmers will most likely avoid Center City for expansion but said it plans to spread its wings in the suburbs.
Matthew Dudash, director of Agency Point in the new southeastern Pennsylvania office, said the plan will be to hire 100 agents per year over the next five years, with each agent hiring between two to five staff. That could mean up to 2,500 new jobs in the region with another operations center opening in Cherry Hill at the end of the year with similar growth plans for South Jersey.
Formed in 1928, Farmers is one of the largest auto and home insurers in the nation and also offers life insurance and specialty policies for boats, recreational vehicles and jet skis. Most of its business lies west of the Mississippi River and it considers Allstate, Nationwide and State Farm its chief rivals.
Allstate spokesman Brett Ludwig said competition is always good for the market.
Allstate has 231 agents in southeastern Pennsylvania and averages 1.7 staff per agency location. It also has a training center in its local headquarters in Malvern that employs about 500 administrative staff.
Pennsylvania is the first new state Farmers has entered in 20 years. Dudash said the region was selected as Farmers’ entry point into the East Coast because of the large population and what it perceived to be a strong business environment.
“The demographic is ideal,” Dudash said. “It’s an established community with growth opportunity.”
Farmers has similar expansion plans for North and South Jersey at the end of this year and New York and Baltimore next year.
Dudash has been with Farmers for 15 years in Los Angeles and Las Vegas but is a Lehigh Valley native. He said he tested the Agency Point concept for Farmers in Ohio a few years back and found the agents it produced have a high success rate. So the company adopted it as its distribution model.
Dudash said Farmers has recruited by way of career fairs, job boards and advertising and has generated a great deal of interest."
Supermarkets are staging a comeback in sections that were once forgotten
"After years of neglect, Philadelphia’s neighborhoods are seeing a surge in retail development — anchored by supermarkets.
Hunting Park West, Cobbs Creek, North Philadelphia, Germantown and Parkside have gotten or are expecting new supermarkets and in-line retail, including restaurants, pharmacies and dry cleaners. Some aging suburbs have also gotten upgrades of late.
The latest plan is for the Bakers Square Shopping Center, a 200,000-square-foot complex planned around the former Tasty Baking Co. baking plant, at Hunting Park Avenue, Fox Street and Roberts Avenue. It will be anchored by a Browns Superstores ShopRite supermarket — the first in the neighborhood in decades. Other retailers will include Kicks USA, Hair Buzz, Ross and, nearby, Restaurant Depot.
“When we first looked at the Tasty Baking parcel, we thought it was a great site for retail. There was no retail within two miles. You couldn’t get a cup of coffee in the neighborhood,” said Mike Grasso, principal at Ardmore-based Metro Development Co., which is developing Bakers Square.
A fall 2012 opening date is planned.
Elsewhere, Cobbs Creek Shopping Center, at 58th and Balitmore, will undergo a $4 million upgrade, with the addition of a Sav-A-Lot supermarket and a Family Dollar store, said Patrick J. Burns, president and CEO at Drexel Hill-based Fresh Grocer, which will develop the supermarket.
Burns said his company also plans to replace an unprofitable Fresh Grocer on Chelten Avenue in Germantown with a new Sav-A-Lot supermarket. The surrounding shopping center, which will have complementary retail, will be redeveloped at a cost of $14 million. A completion date at year’s end is tentatively planned.
The city is not the only area reaping the benefits.
In Darby Borough, in Delaware County, Fresh Grocer and Metro Development teamed up to open Darby Shopping Center, the borough’s first shopping center in more than three decades and its first supermarket, a Sav-A-Lot.
In New Brunswick, N.J., Fresh Grocer is going to be an anchor tenant in a $95.3 million downtown redevelopment effort, known as New Brunswick Wellness Plaza.
Fresh Grocer is also talking to Atlantic City about developing what would be the casino city’s only full-service supermarket.
While urban shopping has gotten a lift of late, two urban shopping centers may have laid the groundwork.
In 2007, in the city’s Parkside neighborhood, Goldenberg Development Co. teamed up with the nonprofit West Philadelphia Financial Services Institute to open a Park West Town Center at 52nd and Jefferson. The $50 million shopping center, anchored by Loews Home Improvement Center and ShopRite, received funding from the state Department of Commmunity and Economic Development along with financing from Wachovia Bank.
Another groundbreaking development, North Broad Street’s Progress Plaza, was actually a remake of a 1960s-era shopping center owned by Progress Investment Association, a nonprofit started by the Rev. Leon Sullivan. The center, which dated to 1968, was renovated at a cost of $16 million and reopened in November 2009, anchored by Fresh Grocer.
Burns of Fresh Grocer said many of the areas where it has developed supermarkets were “food deserts” — neighborhoods with no supermarket and few options for fresh food. It is not uncommon for the market to go into areas that haven’t had a supermarket in 20 years, as was the case of New Brunswick, or even 40 years, as in the case of Fresh Grocer’s store near LaSalle University.
“We like going into ‘food desert’ areas and offering fresh foods and fresh produce,” said Burns. “People enjoy having a brand-new center.”
A common thread in the urban shopping centers is cooperation with neighborhoods and elected officials, but also the presence of incentives.
With the Darby Shopping Center, developers were able to secure federal “new market” tax credits, which allow taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes on investments in designated low-income areas. The tax incentive, in turn, made the project more attractive to lender Beneficial Bank.
Likewise, Park West Town in Parkside received new market tax credits, which helped bring Wachovia on board.
In the case of the Cobbs Creek Shopping Center, state Sen. Anthony Williams was helpful in securing “RCAP dollars,” or state-subsidized loans offered through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. The RCAP dollars have been under fire from state conservatives, who complain that a greater share of funds go to Philadelphia.
In Atlantic City, the supermarket project is being encouraged with help from the city, state and Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.
At Bakers Square, the developers have applied for but not received RPAC dollars as well as new market tax credits. It got preliminary financing from Firstrust Bank. Stores at the center will serve an area of 61,000 residents, plus the employees at Temple University Health Systems and Pep Boys corporate offices.
“Someone from Temple called us and said [the employees] want restaurants,” said Gregory R. Bianchi, a vice president at US Realty Associates Inc., which handles leasing at Bakers Square.
As an economic driver, the ShopRite at Bakers Square will have 300 employees; it is not known yet how many will be needed at other retailers. Yet local elected officials praised the project.
“Projects of this nature are essential to create and maintain neighborhood revitalization,” said Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., 4th District.
“In the midst of a tough budget season for Philadelphia and the state, the development of the future Bakers Square shopping center is a perfect example of why we need to make investments in our communities,” state Sen. Vincent J. Hughes, D-Philadelphia/Montgomery, said.
The Food Trust, a Center City-based nonprofit, has been pushing for more supermarkets in the city, particularly in poorer neighborhoods.
The demand means developing in the city is different from trying to build a parcel in the suburbs, where neighbors often have many choices but less and less open space, said Grasso of Metro Development."
“It’s night and day. With Valley Square [Shopping Center] in Warrington, it took five years [to get OKs]. I went to meetings with a flack jacket on,” Grasso joked. “Here people get excited about it. This neighborhood is completely different.”
Hunting Park West, Cobbs Creek, North Philadelphia, Germantown and Parkside have gotten or are expecting new supermarkets and in-line retail, including restaurants, pharmacies and dry cleaners. Some aging suburbs have also gotten upgrades of late.
The latest plan is for the Bakers Square Shopping Center, a 200,000-square-foot complex planned around the former Tasty Baking Co. baking plant, at Hunting Park Avenue, Fox Street and Roberts Avenue. It will be anchored by a Browns Superstores ShopRite supermarket — the first in the neighborhood in decades. Other retailers will include Kicks USA, Hair Buzz, Ross and, nearby, Restaurant Depot.
“When we first looked at the Tasty Baking parcel, we thought it was a great site for retail. There was no retail within two miles. You couldn’t get a cup of coffee in the neighborhood,” said Mike Grasso, principal at Ardmore-based Metro Development Co., which is developing Bakers Square.
A fall 2012 opening date is planned.
Elsewhere, Cobbs Creek Shopping Center, at 58th and Balitmore, will undergo a $4 million upgrade, with the addition of a Sav-A-Lot supermarket and a Family Dollar store, said Patrick J. Burns, president and CEO at Drexel Hill-based Fresh Grocer, which will develop the supermarket.
Burns said his company also plans to replace an unprofitable Fresh Grocer on Chelten Avenue in Germantown with a new Sav-A-Lot supermarket. The surrounding shopping center, which will have complementary retail, will be redeveloped at a cost of $14 million. A completion date at year’s end is tentatively planned.
The city is not the only area reaping the benefits.
In Darby Borough, in Delaware County, Fresh Grocer and Metro Development teamed up to open Darby Shopping Center, the borough’s first shopping center in more than three decades and its first supermarket, a Sav-A-Lot.
In New Brunswick, N.J., Fresh Grocer is going to be an anchor tenant in a $95.3 million downtown redevelopment effort, known as New Brunswick Wellness Plaza.
Fresh Grocer is also talking to Atlantic City about developing what would be the casino city’s only full-service supermarket.
While urban shopping has gotten a lift of late, two urban shopping centers may have laid the groundwork.
In 2007, in the city’s Parkside neighborhood, Goldenberg Development Co. teamed up with the nonprofit West Philadelphia Financial Services Institute to open a Park West Town Center at 52nd and Jefferson. The $50 million shopping center, anchored by Loews Home Improvement Center and ShopRite, received funding from the state Department of Commmunity and Economic Development along with financing from Wachovia Bank.
Another groundbreaking development, North Broad Street’s Progress Plaza, was actually a remake of a 1960s-era shopping center owned by Progress Investment Association, a nonprofit started by the Rev. Leon Sullivan. The center, which dated to 1968, was renovated at a cost of $16 million and reopened in November 2009, anchored by Fresh Grocer.
Burns of Fresh Grocer said many of the areas where it has developed supermarkets were “food deserts” — neighborhoods with no supermarket and few options for fresh food. It is not uncommon for the market to go into areas that haven’t had a supermarket in 20 years, as was the case of New Brunswick, or even 40 years, as in the case of Fresh Grocer’s store near LaSalle University.
“We like going into ‘food desert’ areas and offering fresh foods and fresh produce,” said Burns. “People enjoy having a brand-new center.”
A common thread in the urban shopping centers is cooperation with neighborhoods and elected officials, but also the presence of incentives.
With the Darby Shopping Center, developers were able to secure federal “new market” tax credits, which allow taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes on investments in designated low-income areas. The tax incentive, in turn, made the project more attractive to lender Beneficial Bank.
Likewise, Park West Town in Parkside received new market tax credits, which helped bring Wachovia on board.
In the case of the Cobbs Creek Shopping Center, state Sen. Anthony Williams was helpful in securing “RCAP dollars,” or state-subsidized loans offered through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. The RCAP dollars have been under fire from state conservatives, who complain that a greater share of funds go to Philadelphia.
In Atlantic City, the supermarket project is being encouraged with help from the city, state and Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.
At Bakers Square, the developers have applied for but not received RPAC dollars as well as new market tax credits. It got preliminary financing from Firstrust Bank. Stores at the center will serve an area of 61,000 residents, plus the employees at Temple University Health Systems and Pep Boys corporate offices.
“Someone from Temple called us and said [the employees] want restaurants,” said Gregory R. Bianchi, a vice president at US Realty Associates Inc., which handles leasing at Bakers Square.
As an economic driver, the ShopRite at Bakers Square will have 300 employees; it is not known yet how many will be needed at other retailers. Yet local elected officials praised the project.
“Projects of this nature are essential to create and maintain neighborhood revitalization,” said Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., 4th District.
“In the midst of a tough budget season for Philadelphia and the state, the development of the future Bakers Square shopping center is a perfect example of why we need to make investments in our communities,” state Sen. Vincent J. Hughes, D-Philadelphia/Montgomery, said.
The Food Trust, a Center City-based nonprofit, has been pushing for more supermarkets in the city, particularly in poorer neighborhoods.
The demand means developing in the city is different from trying to build a parcel in the suburbs, where neighbors often have many choices but less and less open space, said Grasso of Metro Development."
“It’s night and day. With Valley Square [Shopping Center] in Warrington, it took five years [to get OKs]. I went to meetings with a flack jacket on,” Grasso joked. “Here people get excited about it. This neighborhood is completely different.”
Cosmetics company will take Jones space, creating 200 jobs
by Natalie Kostelni,
"Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. is growing its presence here, having secured a long-term lease on a large warehouse that will bring at least 200 jobs to Lower Bucks County.
The cosmetics company signed a 15-year lease on a 241,977-square-foot industrial building at 250 Rittenhouse Circle. The building is owned by Lexington Realty Trust of New York.
The building adds to Estée Lauder’s already significant presence in Lower Bucks, where it occupies in excess of 700,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space. The company first set up a distribution center in Bristol some 20 years ago and steadily added space.
“The [Rittenhouse Circle] site was chosen due to the proximity of our other Pennsylvania locations,” a company spokeswoman said in an email. “Our Pennsylvania location provides a desirable geographic location for shipping and receiving due to its access to major roads and highways.”
The Rittenhouse Circle facility will handle logistical and warehouse operations.
The company declined to disclose how much space and how many employees in total it has in Bucks County, saying it doesn’t keep track of each number of employees at each location. People familiar with its operations there believe it’s more than 700,000 square feet.
The company first looked at the building more than a year ago and explored whether to tap the benefits offered by a Keystone Opportunity Zone that ran with the property. An opportunity zone gives a business breaks on some state and local taxes. After some time, the company stopped pursuing the building and another major company from New Jersey began to explore using the building but never consummated a deal, said Bob Cormack, executive director of the Bucks County Economic Development Corp.
In the end, Estée Lauder swooped in.
The company did not receive any money from Cormack’s organization or from the state, according to Cormack and State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson’s office. “I think it’s a great sign for Lower Bucks County that the company is expanding and that it sends a message that Lower Bucks is a viable area to do business,” Cormack said. “It’s an excellent move.”
Lower Bucks has a strong labor force that companies seek out that is proximate to the New York area as well as has access to major arteries running along the East Coast, Cormack said.
Estée Lauder, which will move in the second quarter, helps to fill a gap left by Express Scripts Inc. when it decided in December to close down a plant in nearby Bensalem and lay off about 500 workers. Express Scripts was looking to move into the building after the Department of Community and Economic Development designated the property in 2009 as an opportunity zone.
Express Scripts was considering relocating to the building from Bensalem. Estée Lauder has not applied to get the opportunity zone tax benefits, said Sean Schaffer, spokesman for Tomlinson, who was instrumental in getting the opportunity zone for the site to begin with. While the company declined to provide how many new jobs it would be creating at the site, Schaffer was able to confirm it was around 200.
The lease also fills space vacated by Jones Group Inc. The apparel company had the Rittenhouse Circle building, which sits on 15.6 acres, constructed in 1982 as its headquarters and distribution space. Jones vacated nearly four years ago."
"Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. is growing its presence here, having secured a long-term lease on a large warehouse that will bring at least 200 jobs to Lower Bucks County.
The cosmetics company signed a 15-year lease on a 241,977-square-foot industrial building at 250 Rittenhouse Circle. The building is owned by Lexington Realty Trust of New York.
The building adds to Estée Lauder’s already significant presence in Lower Bucks, where it occupies in excess of 700,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space. The company first set up a distribution center in Bristol some 20 years ago and steadily added space.
“The [Rittenhouse Circle] site was chosen due to the proximity of our other Pennsylvania locations,” a company spokeswoman said in an email. “Our Pennsylvania location provides a desirable geographic location for shipping and receiving due to its access to major roads and highways.”
The Rittenhouse Circle facility will handle logistical and warehouse operations.
The company declined to disclose how much space and how many employees in total it has in Bucks County, saying it doesn’t keep track of each number of employees at each location. People familiar with its operations there believe it’s more than 700,000 square feet.
The company first looked at the building more than a year ago and explored whether to tap the benefits offered by a Keystone Opportunity Zone that ran with the property. An opportunity zone gives a business breaks on some state and local taxes. After some time, the company stopped pursuing the building and another major company from New Jersey began to explore using the building but never consummated a deal, said Bob Cormack, executive director of the Bucks County Economic Development Corp.
In the end, Estée Lauder swooped in.
The company did not receive any money from Cormack’s organization or from the state, according to Cormack and State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson’s office. “I think it’s a great sign for Lower Bucks County that the company is expanding and that it sends a message that Lower Bucks is a viable area to do business,” Cormack said. “It’s an excellent move.”
Lower Bucks has a strong labor force that companies seek out that is proximate to the New York area as well as has access to major arteries running along the East Coast, Cormack said.
Estée Lauder, which will move in the second quarter, helps to fill a gap left by Express Scripts Inc. when it decided in December to close down a plant in nearby Bensalem and lay off about 500 workers. Express Scripts was looking to move into the building after the Department of Community and Economic Development designated the property in 2009 as an opportunity zone.
Express Scripts was considering relocating to the building from Bensalem. Estée Lauder has not applied to get the opportunity zone tax benefits, said Sean Schaffer, spokesman for Tomlinson, who was instrumental in getting the opportunity zone for the site to begin with. While the company declined to provide how many new jobs it would be creating at the site, Schaffer was able to confirm it was around 200.
The lease also fills space vacated by Jones Group Inc. The apparel company had the Rittenhouse Circle building, which sits on 15.6 acres, constructed in 1982 as its headquarters and distribution space. Jones vacated nearly four years ago."
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