This Week's Philadelphia Deal Sheet
Over two years after announcing its intent to plant a life sciences flag at a former factory in Nicetown-Tioga, Plymouth Group has landed its first tenant at Budd Bioworks.
DIGroup Architecture announced its signing of a lease to relocate its Philadelphia office to the main Budd building at 2540 West Hunting Park Ave. The Black-owned firm, headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, has been involved in strategic planning for the Budd Bioworks campus.
DIGroup's announcement gave the total square footage for Budd Bioworks as 650K SF. Plymouth Group's 2021 plans for the former manufacturing complex called for 2.4M SF over several phases.
Clean room manufacturer Angstrom Technology also has agreed to build an interactive demonstration space in Budd Bioworks for life sciences users to test out different types of clean room setups and different regulatory designations, Angstrom Life Sciences Division President Jennifer Biro announced onstage at Bisnow's International Life Sciences and Biotech Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Angstrom launched its life sciences division on Monday with Biro, formerly of CleanSpace USA.
CONSTRUCTION
Pennrose, Hunt Cos. and the Philadelphia Housing Authority broke ground Wednesday on Sharswood Crossing III, the third phase of PHA's affordable housing and mixed-use development funded by a Choice Neighborhoods grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Construction began on the mixed-income, 224-unit development on a series of blighted lots around Master Street and Ridge Avenue five months after PHA, Pennrose and Hunt cut the ribbon on the 59-unit Sharswood Crossing II.
Sharswood Crossing III will be delivered in three phases, all of which will contain rental properties. The first phase will be 57 units split between a four-story apartment building and a five-story building at Ridge and Master. In addition to 15 market-rate apartments, the two buildings will contain six units affordable to people making 20% of Philly's area median income, 14 units at 50% AMI and 22 units at 60% AMI.
PEOPLE
Scope Commercial Real Estate Services nabbed a new director of investment services in Mher Vartanian, hiring him away from Marcus & Millichap after he spent nearly 10 years in the latter's Philadelphia practice. Nick DiPrimio also came over with Vartanian to work as a senior associate. Scope plans to use Vartanian's hire as an opportunity to expand into asset classes beyond its core multifamily business.
FINANCING
Wharton Industrial secured a five-year, fixed-rate loan for a 10-property industrial portfolio totaling 443K SF in Philly's Pennsylvania suburbs, South Jersey and the Lehigh Valley. Clearance heights vary between 16 and 22 feet across the fully leased portfolio.
Securian Asset Management gave Wharton the $33.5M loan on behalf of Minnesota Life Insurance Co. JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory represented Wharton in the deal, which replaced bridge financing on the portfolio.
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East Capital Partners secured a construction loan and joint venture equity for the development of a 40K SF headquarters and production and distribution facility for local brand Stateside Vodka at 13000 McNulty Road on the northeast edge of Philadelphia.
The McNulty Road site is unencumbered and hasn't had previous development, clearing the way for the construction of Stateside Distillery with 28-foot clearance height and seven loading docks. Stateside will lease the entire facility on a long-term basis.
A Cushman & Wakefield equity, debt and structured finance team secured the loan from Univest on behalf of East Capital Partners, as well as a joint venture equity investment from Tramview Capital Management.
