Sky Mgmt Services Takes 913 Market St

Sky Management Services LLC acquired the office building at 913 N. Market St. in Wilmington, DE from Delaware Offices LLC for $1.625 million, or just $23 per square foot, in an all-cash deal. The property was purchased in an online auction. 

The 71,852-square-foot, 12-story office building was built in 1983. The property is located near Rodney Square, providing access to public transportation, the courts' public offices, and major banks. 

The property is currently 67 percent vacant; however the buyer plans to completely renovate the property. The buyer has retained Rick Kingery at Colliers International to handle leasing at the property. 
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TriState Container Leases 65,000 SF in Bensalem

TriState Container Corp, a manufacturer of corrugated boxes, signed a five-year lease for 65,000 square feet at 2260 State Rd. in Bensalem, PA. 

The 93,860-square-foot manufacturing building was constructed in 1970 and renovated in 1994. The property is located in the Bucks Industrial submarket, just minutes from the I-95 and Woodhaven Road interchange. 
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Allentown developer plans tallest building in Lehigh Valley

By Emily Opilo, Of The Morning Call

After decades of spreading out, Allentown could be growing up, its skyline altered by the Lehigh Valley's tallest building.

Developer Bruce Loch unveiled plans Wednesday for the 33-story Landmark Tower at Ninth and Walnut streets. The $60-million project would include nearly 200,000 square feet of office, retail and residential space and eclipse the vacant Martin Tower, the former headquarters of Bethlehem Steel and the Valley's tallest building, by 20 feet.

Loch, an experienced residential builder in the Lehigh Valley with more than $100 million in development under his belt, is making his first foray into this type of project, which he said would be on a lot owned by the Allentown Parking Authority, next to the authority's garage on Walnut Street.

The property is in the city's one-of-a-kind Neighborhood Improvement Zone, which allows developers to tap tenants' state and city taxes, not including property taxes, to finance construction.

Plans, which are in the early stages, call for retail on the ground floor of the tower, topped by 19 stories of offices. Above that would be 10 floors of residential space — of those, six would be for apartments and four for condominiums. The top three floors of the building would be a restaurant and conference center.

Loch said he has been in talks with Philadelphia restaurateurs who might be interested in the space. He has also been working with a possible tenant for the office space. About 150 to 200 jobs would be created by the building's office tenant, he said. Another 200 to 300 would be needed for construction.

The parking authority voted Wednesday to begin negotiations with Loch to hash out a development agreement for the project. Loch said construction could begin by March 2015.

At 350 feet, the new structure would be the tallest in the area, but it wouldn't be the first time Allentown was home to the Lehigh Valley's tallest building. Completed in 1928, the PPL Tower held the title for many years at 322 feet. In 1972, Bethlehem's Martin Tower broke the record, stretching 330 feet into the air.

If built, Loch's tower would also be the tallest building in the state outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, he said. Currently, the tallest structure outside Pennsylvania's two largest cities is in downtown Harrisburg.

But unlike most of those buildings, the tower would fit onto a very small site. The 4,000 square-foot plot for sale by the parking authority is currently just a small green space in the NIZ — about one-third the size of the PPL Tower's footprint. Authority members put it out for bid to explore what might be possible, but they weren't sure what they would get, Executive Director Tamara Dolan said.

"I'm still amazed," she said. "I'm not an engineer, I'm not an architect, I'm not a developer. I could have never looked at 4,000 square feet and seen a 33-story office building."

To fit onto the site, Loch's building would be cantilevered. The first eight floors would be 4,900 square feet each. Upper floors would expand to 6,000 square feet. Loch has offered $100,000 for the property.

Sara Hailstone, executive director of the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority, sat in on Loch's presentation as a member of the parking authority. It's promising to see more people who want to invest in the NIZ, she said.

"It certainly is a unique spot to put such a tall building," she said.

Alan Jennings, executive director of Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley and a member of the ANIZDA board, said the proposal has not come before the board, but it is an "extraordinary demonstration of the power of the NIZ."

Loch, who is best known for residential development in the Lehigh Valley, said he has had plans for the tower since the 1980s, but the economy tanked as he was preparing to build it. Today, the NIZ makes it possible, he said.

But Loch must clear several hurdles before beginning construction. The lot must be subdivided from an adjacent parking garage, and Loch must get approval from ANIZDA to use NIZ funds for the project.

Loch said he hopes to get 50 percent of the mortgage payment due on the building from NIZ funds.

If it is built, the tower would be a dramatic change to Allentown's landscape. David Bausch, a former city councilman, head of Lehigh County government, and city resident of 81 years, said it would be the first major change to the city's skyline since the 1920s.

Unlike other metropolitan areas that built taller buildings out of necessity, Allentown always had plenty of space, Bausch said. When the city grew, it moved outward, not upward.

But that was the old way of thinking, Bausch said. Today's residents and investors see Allentown as a growing metropolitan area, as evidenced by more modern buildings on Hamilton Street.

"Depending on what the building looks like, I think it would be a very positive thing," Bausch said. "Anything to bring some new business into town."

Full story: http://tinyurl.com/cwdhme9

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Two Collegeville office buildings bought

by Natalie Kostelni-Staff Writer, Philadelphia Business Journal

TA Associates Realty invested $33 million to buy two office buildings in the Providence Corporate Center in Collegeville, Pa. Equus Capital Partners of Philadelphia was the seller. The deal was consummated on March 26.

The buildings — Highview I and Highview II — combined have a total of 183,363 square feet. Highview I at 400 Campus Drive totals 78,546 square feet and Highview II at 200 Campus Drive totals 104,799 square feet. Equus constructed the structures in 2003 for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. They are located on Route 29 just off of Route 422 and across the street from Providence Town Center, a retail development that includes a Wegmans, Movie Tavern and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Full story: http://tinyurl.com/cthenrt

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Dranoff Breaks Ground on SouthStar Lofts

Dranoff Properties broke ground on SouthStar Lofts, a 150,000-square-foot multifamily building located on the prominent corner of Broad and South Streets in Philadelphia's Market Street East submarket. 

The seven-story building at 521 South Broad Street will have 85 loft style apartments, as well as 10,045 square feet of street level commercial space. Delivery is expected in the spring of 2014. 

Christian Van Horn of Dranoff Properties will handle the leasing of the commercial space. The project architect is JKR Partners.
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Chris Holtz on Movinng Your Voice and Data

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Is Office Space a Thing of the Past?

By: Sam Chandan, Ph.D., is president and chief economist of Chandan Economics and an adjunct professor at the Wharton School.

Is the office obsolete?

The argument has been going on since before the Internet, when its antecedents were limited to connecting university research labs to the Department of Defense. The adoption of new technologies may afford smaller server rooms and fewer filing cabinets, but the location of people dominates everything else when it comes to office space utilization. At least on the margins, the data show we are using less office space for every employee. We cannot assume that reflects the impact of technology, but it’s not an unreasonable hypothesis.

The notion of telecommuting can be traced back 40 years, to prophecy of a more decentralized work force driven by new computer technologies and rising transportation costs. Our office buildings have not emptied out, in part because technology remains—at least for the time being—an imperfect substitute for face-to-face collaboration.

If it was at risk of falling into the background, Marissa Mayer’s decree that Yahoo employees present themselves has rekindled the debate about the future of the office. She has been variously applauded for undertaking badly needed reforms and derided for outmoded thinking. As a means to strategic and operating goals, the rationale was not unsound. From an operating perspective, remote employees were underperforming. From a strategic perspective, employees’ lack of motivation could be framed in terms of the company’s loss of momentum.

Ms. Mayer is betting that by bringing her staff together, she can re-energize them. By all accounts, the execution of the policy shift was short on tact and too rigid. Abstracting away from the organizational and market challenges facing Yahoo!, there is a broader conjecture that may hold merit: we generate more and better ideas in groups.

Imagine a world that bears an uncanny resemblance to a stylized economic model. In this very odd and two-dimensional place, there are two types of people. Creative types are highly productive, but even more productive when collocated with others of their type. Less creative types are productive as well, but their productivity is unaffected by their location—as long as they are monitored.

If the available technology means that what I’ll describe as regular types can be equally productive from any location—and if that technology also supports monitoring—we should observe spatial dispersion in this subset of the work force.

For the creative types, who are more productive when they are located together, there may still be a host of reasons why they will want to remain separate. Perhaps most important, at home you can work in your underwear. It can get a little lonely during the day, but you know how to socialize on your own time. Your perspective may change if you learn that your office-bound friends are earning more.

From the firm’s perspective, higher productivity in this simplified world translates into higher profits. If market mechanisms are functioning reasonably well, management will compensate collocated employees more highly to reflect their higher economic value. Responding to that incentive, we should observe spatial convergence among creatives, even if the occasional day from home is part of the routine.

Things are not static, of course. The available technology may change, producing more effective substitutes for collocation. But until then, there is a productivity advantage to the firm that will bring its creative types together.

Full article: http://ht.ly/jsI1b

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