Piedmont Closes $360M Sale, Exits Philadelphia
Piedmont Office Realty Trust announced Tuesday it has completed the $360M sale of its sole property in Philadelphia — 1901 Market St. — to its tenant, Independence Blue Cross.
1901 Market St. is a 45-story, 800K SF building on three-quarters of an acre in downtown Philadelphia. Atlanta-based Piedmont acquired the property in 2003 and said it earned a nine-digit gain on its sale. Piedmont invested more than $110M in capital improvements on the Philadelphia property, including a new lobby and an outdoor piazza. The company is now focusing on markets in the Sun Belt.
“The sale of 1901 Market St. concludes a successful recycling story for Piedmont, allowing us to dispose of a long-term, 100%-leased asset in a non-strategic market where we believe the value potential during our ownership has been realized and to fully reinvest the proceeds accretively into our recent purchase of Dallas Galleria Office Towers,” Piedmont CEO Brent Smith said in a press release.
The Independence deal is valued at $450 per SF, which the Philadelphia Inquirer reports was among the highest ever pad or a non-medical office building in Center City.
CBRE served as Piedmont’s financial and marketing adviser.
