Monthly Archives: January 2014

We are returning to our discussion of retail trends started in our Jan. 26 post. The sector looks pretty grim on the surface, with so many major chains shuttering stores in Philadelphia and all over the country. Traditional indoor malls will likely feel the worst of it as large anchor stores empty out. In addition to their sheer size (and the rent that comes with it), Anchors like J.C. Penney, Sears and Macy’s offer shoppers key access points to indoor malls. When they close, shoppers’ routines are interrupted, sometimes to the point of striking the entire mall of the shopper’s list of destinations.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court appeared split on the right of our state to restrict the use of fracking.  The case concerned in part Act 13 of the amended Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act.  It also commented upon Section 27 of the Declaration of Rights in the Pennsylvania Constitution which provides our state’s citizens the right to preservation of our environment (among other things).

We may be showing our age, but reports about retail stores, especially large department stores, closing bring the old Yellow Pages ads to mind: Let your fingers do the walking, the soothing voiceover told us. With the advent of online shopping, Americans have taken that advice to heart by avoiding bricks-and-mortar shopping, even at the holidays.

A few news articles have appeared since the end of December about various plans to revitalize Philadelphia. There are big projects in the works, including the new Comcast tower and riverfront development. The question for construction firms, though, is whether they will have enough workers to do the jobs.

A new health center is opening in the Exton Square Mall outside of Philadelphia. It is not a quick-stop clinic, either; it is a full-service, 32,000-square-foot primary care clinic with a staff of 75. In addition to its “traditional” clinic space, the site will boast a cancer center, an urgent care clinic, a laboratory and even a physical therapy and rehabilitation center.

This has been quite a week for Philadelphia’s commercial real estate market. The Philadelphia Business Journal is reporting that J.C. Penney Corp. will close two stores in the metropolitan area and that Comcast and Liberty Property Trust have joined forces to put up a new skyscraper in Center City.

Our Old City is growing up. Once a nightlife destination, the area has become a little more sophisticated, a “design district populated by fashionable people,” as the Philadelphia Inquirer’s architecture critic puts it. A number of projects are underway that will continue to coax the neighborhood into a prosperous middle age.

Fans of retailer Anthropologie will be happy to learn that the store will not be relocating from its Rittenhouse Square location. The purveyor of women’s clothing and household accessories has reportedly negotiated a new lease with Philadelphia Urban Investors LP that should be a win-win for both landlord and tenant.

It struck us recently that commercial real estate’s buzz words and acronyms and secret handshakes can be both a curse and a blessing. The curse, of course, lands on industry outsiders and people new to the business; they are left wondering what the heck is going on. The blessing is that once you grasp the terms, meetings with city planners will make more sense and negotiations with contractors, suppliers and, yes, the city will go more smoothly and a little faster.

We are talking about a dispute between Douglass Township in Montgomery County and a company that purchased a large parcel of land there. The 53.4-acre site had been a tree nursery; it also falls under the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program. With the blessings of township officials — and a necessary zoning exception — the new owner opened a mulch operation on 7.5 acres of the property.