Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Real Estate Law Blog

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.

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.

The Franklin Mills Mall was one of the first outlet malls in the country. Its location in Northeast Philadelphia was unique among outlet malls when it opened in 1989. Most outlets were far outside city limits in converted manufacturing facilities, but Franklin Mills was just off Interstate 95. Its size — 1.7 million square feet — made it a destination for tourists; its proximity made it a destination for locals.

Philadelphia could find itself as the new home to a construction consulting company with business that extends into multiple states and even countries. This company employs 4,000 individuals and has approximately 100 offices across the world. The company is Hill International.

Economists are spending their time this week trying to figure out how much the federal shutdown cost the country. Before the shutdown, though, at least one economist was figuring out how the commercial real estate market has changed over the past few years. As we said in our last post, the economist, a speaker at an Urban Land Institute symposium, suggests that it is time to stop blaming the slow recovery, especially in the office market, on the recession.

The time has come to stop blaming the recession for the slow commercial real estate market, according to an economist presenting at an Urban Land Institute event. The office market has been improving, but incrementally. Office space absorption is down about 40 percent from before the recession, and it is unlikely to recover completely. Brokers, agents and customers need to embrace the new normal, it seems, and the new normal has a lot to do with advances in technology.

Last month it was the company Destination Maternity, a leading global designer and retailer of maternity clothes, that made a major announcement concerning relocation of its corporate headquarters.

Walking down the streets of Philadelphia, you may feel the steady gaze of William Penn looking down from atop City Hall. Chances are good, though, that Penn’s stare will not melt your car or set fire to your welcome mat on a sunny day. Those are feats that only 20 Fenchurch Street can lay claim to.

Philadelphia developers, there is a lesson for you in the story of a new building in London. The 37-story building at 20 Fenchurch Street in the city’s financial district was originally dubbed the “Walkie Talkie,” in honor of its unusual shape. As the seasons changed, and the sun lowered on the horizon, that unusual shape has earned the building a new nickname: the fryscraper.