This Week's Philadelphia Deal Sheet

Grocery-anchored shopping centers continue to be among the most popular subtypes of retail real estate, as Wharton Realty Group demonstrated when it purchased two such properties in the Philadelphia region for about $70M each. 

Exeter Commons is a 361K SF complex in Reading, Pennsylvania, that is over 99% leased and counts Giant, Target, Lowe's Home Improvement and Five Below among its tenants.

Deptford Landing includes more than 570K SF of retail, including Walmart and Sam's Club, and sits on 67 acres in the New Jersey township of the same name. Both properties were sold by an affiliate of Blackstone Group, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports.

CONSTRUCTION/DEVELOPMENT

The Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. has released new requests for proposals for five different sets of city-owned parcels across Philly, with the goal of selecting a developer to build affordable housing on the land. Two RFPs are for land in the central portion of North Philadelphia, one is centered in the West Poplar neighborhood, one is in Strawberry Mansion and one is in East Kensington.

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A 78-unit, mixed-income senior housing development with services and some units set aside for those with disabilities or who have experienced homelessness has begun welcoming residents in Strawberry Mansion, Axios reports. An affiliate of Baltimore-based Ernst Valery Investments developed the project on two vacant lots provided by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which also provided a $6.5M loan and a contract to subsidize $18.7M worth of rent over the next 20 years.

SALES

Aviridi, a life sciences company focusing on biofermentation for pharmaceutical and consumer products, has purchased a 10K SF life sciences building in Norristown to serve as its headquarters after the conclusion of a seed capital fundraising round from a qualified opportunity fund. The facility is located within a federal opportunity zone, and Aviridi is marketing itself as a qualified opportunity zone business.

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PRDC Properties has sold a 5-acre parcel at 650 Fairmount Ave. in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia where it had once planned a $100M multifamily development, PBJ reports. With the sizable increase in construction costs over the past year-plus, PRDC decided it couldn't afford to move forward with the project, selling the site to New Jersey's Accurate Builders & Developers for an undisclosed sum.