Buccini/Pollin Group, based in Wilmington, recently purchased a Class A office tower in Philadelphia’s suburbs.
One Tower Bridge, a 271,678-square-foot office building along the Schuylkill River’s bank northwest of Philadelphia, closed on March 31. The purchase price was not disclosed in a Wednesday announcement by BPG, and land records in Montgomery County, Pa., do not yet show a deed transfer. The Philadelphia Business Journal, on the other hand, reported that the sale price was $59 million.
The 15-story building, which was built in 1989, was previously owned by a partnership between real estate development firm Oliver Tyrone Pulver and the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust. Since 2014, the owners have reportedly invested $5.9 million in building renovations and maintenance.
BPG intends to invest $9 million in property improvements, including garage and plaza renovations, common area restroom and corridor upgrades, ground level lobby enhancements, and exterior façade work.
At a time when office real estate is facing headwinds, the One Tower Bridge transaction represents some stability in the portfolio, as 65% of the tenants who leased space after its initial construction 33 years ago have remained. It is anchored by Morgan Stanley, which occupies more than a third of the leasable area and has a lease until December 2029.
The office tower is 92% leased in total.Since acquiring Quaker Park in 2005, BPG has managed 7 million square feet of commercial office space, including investments in the Conshohocken office market. Swedesford Park in nearby Wayne, Pa. is also managed by BPG.
Although BPG is well-known in Delaware for heavily investing in its Wilmington headquarters, the firm is increasingly investing in office, hotel, and entertainment projects across the country, including in Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., Orlando, and New Orleans. Its assets currently exceed $6 billion.
