Centre Square Office Complex Sells for $328 Million

A major real estate deal has gone down in the City of Brotherly Love. The Centre Square office complex located at 1500 Market Street has sold. The new owner is  Nightingale Properties, a New York-based real estate investment company. According to CBRE Capital Markets, the sale marks the biggest office property purchase by square footage in the city’s history.

The sale of Centre Square marks the largest office complex purchase by square footage in the history of Philadelphia. (Photo: CBRE CAPITAL MARKETS)

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: “The sale of the 1.76 million-square-square-foot complex, which consists of a 36-story east tower and a 43-story west tower, marks the end of a more than yearlong search for a buyer. In March 2016, Chicago-based Equity Commonwealth put the property on the market. The sale was completed July 14, CBRE said, with the complex 91.2 percent leased.” Nightingale has already announced plans to extensively renovate the buildings, which were built in 1974 and have not been updated.

Current tenants of Centre Square include the University of Pennsylvania Health System; Towers Watson, a global advisory and broking and solutions company; law firms Dilworth Paxson and Saul Ewing; Public Health Management Corp.; and Radian, a mortgage insurer. Also bundled in with the complex is a 450-space parking garage and 41,000 square feet of retail including shops and eateries.

“Centre Square is a major part of Philadelphia’s fabric and attracted investor interest and capital commitments from around the globe,” said Robert Fahey, executive vice president of CBRE, which Nightingale will retain as a leasing agent after the deal goes through. “The asset sits across from Dilworth Park and City Hall and above the mass-transit network. It is the best located set of office towers” in the business district.

Nightingale Properties currently owns several other properties in Philadelphia: 1500 Spring Garden, 1835 Market St., and 1635 Market St., according to its website. These have in common that they are all multistory office buildings in Center City. The group also previously bought 1700 Market and then flipped it after property improvements.