This Week's Philadelphia Deal Sheet: JLL Top Broker Mark Thomson Leaves To Start His Own Multifamily Firm

One of JLL's most influential brokers in the region has gone into business for himself.

Mark Thomson left his post as the co-head of JLL's capital markets office in Philadelphia to form Love Communities, a firm that will invest in, manage and develop multifamily properties in suburban areas. The company launched with a portfolio of 12 properties totaling 1,400 units, which Thomson had acquired on the side over a 15-year period while working as a broker.

In the latter stages of that career, Thomson served as the East Coast representative on JLL’s national multifamily leadership council. He also was JLL’s top multifamily broker in 2022, driven by his involvement in Post Brothers' $357M sale of Presidential City at the edge of Philadelphia, by far the priciest multifamily sale in the city's history.

Also joining Thomson are his brother Jay, property management executive Rachel Culling and former JLL Vice President Heather Pushinsky, who will serve as president of Love Communities and manage the company's day-to-day operations while Thomson focuses on sourcing acquisition deals, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports.

Love Communities will focus on suburban garden-style apartment communities with fewer than 200 units in the mid-Atlantic — where much of Thomson's assembled portfolio is focused — as well as Central and Western Pennsylvania, with potential expansion to Ohio and New York. Among the buildings Thomson acquired that Love now manages is the 144-unit Rolling Green Apartments complex in Norristown, PBJ reports.

OPENINGS

On Thursday, Philadelphia officials will cut the ribbon on the first completed project built on formerly vacant city-owned land as part of the city's Turn The Key program. The single-family home at 411 Cantrell St. was the first to be built and sold on land transferred to developers in exchange for a promised sale price of no more than $280K.

Developers Civetta Property Group and BVG Property Group, as well as the newly minted homeowner at 411 Cantrell, are scheduled to join City Council President Darrell Clarke and District 1 Councilmember Mark Squilla in speaking at the event.

Though the Cantrell Street house is the first completed project facilitated by Turn The Key, which also offers financial assistance for homebuyers, hundreds of other lots have been transferred by the city to private developers in a program to which local politicians are pinning the city's affordable housing hopes.

CONSTRUCTION

State and local officials broke ground Wednesday on the nearly 12-acre park promised for years and dubbed the Park at Penn's Landing that will eventually cap Interstate 95 between Walnut and Chestnut streets, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. 

Demolition of a pedestrian overpass at Walnut Street will be among the first elements of construction, which is eventually expected to cause closures of I-95 on weeknights, the Inquirer reported.

Construction of the park, which will also cover Christopher Columbus Boulevard between Old City and the Delaware River, is expected to take four to six years. The Durst Organization won the rights to develop a multiphase mixed-use complex surrounding the new park in 2020. 

SALES

Atlanta-based developer Portman Holdings acquired a 169-acre site in the Chester County suburb of Exton for the development of a three-building, 1.9M SF distribution center complex dubbed I-76 Trade Center. 

After closing on the purchase in July and securing a development agreement with Uwchlan Township, Portman began site work last month and expects to begin vertical construction on the first 636K SF building this fall. The second phase includes two warehouses of 1.1M SF and 154K SF, and it is expected to be largely completed by early 2025.

Situated just off Exit 312 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the lot has been known as Happy Days Farm for years as it cycled through various owners and development plans, the Philadelphia Business Journal reports. The site's seller, Audubon Land Development, had obtained permits to build a 1.9M SF industrial park, but it never advanced beyond the planning stage before selling.

FINANCING

Developer KPR Centers and equity partner PCCP secured a $56M construction loan to develop a 525K SF distribution center in Claymont, Delaware, just over the Pennsylvania state line from Delaware County.

A JLL Capital Markets debt advisory team led by Senior Managing Director Chris Drew, Senior Director Mike Pagniucci and Director Michael DiCosimo arranged the financing with lender Principal Asset Management. 

At 401 Naamans Road, the development will be situated just off Interstates 95 and 495 and contain 40-foot ceiling clearance and 99 dock doors.