A partnership that owns 1760 Market St. in Philadelphia has decided that it wants to sell the boutique office building just two years after buying it for $20 million.
The property joins two other Center City office towers to come on the market. Gemini Rosemont Realty is looking to unload 2000 Market St., a 29-story, 665,649-square-foot office building, while Equity Office Properties is seeking to sell 1600 Market, a 39-story, 760,000-square-foot office structure.
Stockton Real Estate Advisors and Alterra Property Group bought 1760 Market, a 15-story, 126,689-square-foot building, in September 2015. At the time, it was 65 percent occupied and the partnership was attracted to the building’s location between Comcast Center and the Comcast Innovation Center, which is under construction, and Rittenhouse Square.
With those buildings and the neighborhood serving as significant anchors that bookend a portion of the city, “18th Street has become a pedestrian super highway,” said James Paterno of Stockton. As a result, 1760 Market had a front-row seat to that heightened activity and Stockton thought the building could take advantage of it.
Since the acquisition, the partnership has spent $4 million on various renovations, including upgrading the lobby and elevators as well as installing a communal café area with seating and a conference room shared by tenants. A new lighted canopy was installed at the entrance to give it more of an identity. The goal of the renovations was to give a 1980s vintage building a contemporary look.
The building is 81 percent occupied though Paterno said he thought that by this point 1760 Market would have been closer to 90 percent occupied. The landlord had chased but didn’t catch a couple of full-floor deals, so it was later decided to continue focusing on smaller tenants to fill the space. The building is occupied by dozens of tenants, among the largest are: Allied Universal with 14,345 square feet; Security Risk Advisors with 9,152 square feet; and Philadelphia Trust Co. with 8,834 square feet.
Prior to the Stockton partnership buying 1760 Market, the building traded in 2006 for around $22.6 million and one estimate has it selling for more than $30 million this time around. Paterno declined to say how much he thought it might fetch. “We’ll see what the market says about pricing,” he said.
Jim Galbally and Brett Grifo of JLL are marketing the property.
Cite: Natalie Kostelni Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
Original article: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2017/06/12/40th-chestnut-university-city-penn-stockton-u3-cre.html