DVRPC Exits Bourse for 35,000 SF Across the Mall

PHILADELPHIA-The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission inked a lease for 35,000 sf in the nine-story, 275,000-sf American College of Physicians Building at 190 North Independence Mall West, taking it to 100% occupancy. DVRPC will move to its new quarters in May 2005 after 20 years in the historic Bourse Building on the opposite side of Independence Mall at 111 South Independence Mall East.

David Jarjisian, SVP, and Nick Gersbach, senior associate with the local office of CB Richard Ellis, represented the owner in the transaction. Ken Clyman, Steve Gendler and Wayne Fisher of the local office of Grubb & Ellis, repped DVRPC.

Terms of the lease are undisclosed. The average asking rental rate for office space east of Broad Street is $21.68 per sf, according to second-quarter data from Cushman & Wakefield’s local office, while Trammel Crow Co.’s area office reports an asking average of $21.84 per sf throughout the CBD. However, brokers tell GlobeSt.com the asking average in the Independence Mall submarket is lower than for properties closer to Broad and also point out that intense competition in the CBD is taking effective rates closer to the $18-per-sf range.

The original American College of Physicians Building, completed in 1989, was 105,237 sf. A 169,533-sf addition was completed in early 2002. The property, adjacent to the new National Constitution Center, offers easy access to I-95, I-676 and the Ben Franklin Bridge to New Jersey. It has a rooftop terrace adjacent to Café, a private fitness center, and meeting and conference space. Bourse Building was completed in the late 1890s and converted and renovated to a mix of retail and office space in the 1970s.