Post Brothers To Spend $50M On Two Center City Retail Properties

PH Retail, an affiliate of Post Brothers, has acquired two Center City retail properties, and plans site improvements, the combination of which will cost north of $50M.

At 1520-22 Chestnut St and 1501-05 Walnut St, the two properties sit just over a block away from each other in the most heavily trafficked area for pedestrians in Philadelphia.

That prime location, plus their size—70k SF between the two—is the reason for the high price tag, as Jim Galbally of JLL, who brokered the sale, explains.

“We’ve seen trades north of $1,500/SF along the prime high street corridors in Philadelphia,” Jim told Bisnow, adding, “there’s significant demand from investors for high street retail, and not much supply… You don’t see these trades happen all that often.”

PH Retail acquired the properties from PREIT, which, according to Jim, is "repositioning their portfolio to get rid of non-core assets,” choosing instead to focus on regional shopping malls.

In the Walnut property sits a newly opened flagship store for AT&T Mobility, a Club Monaco clothing store and one available space. The Chestnut property had a Dollar Tree (above) until recently, but PH Retail has bigger plans for it.

“The real unique thing about the Chestnut Street property is that it has very large floor plates and excellent frontage along Chestnut Street, so it can accommodate some larger-format retail," James said.

At Chestnut Street is about 40k of the total 70k SF of the project, and that sort of size allows for national retailers who prefer larger-format stores to move in—something they're clamoring to do in such a popular area.

Although there are plans for renovations at both properties, Jim wouldn't rule out something larger in scale.

“There’s a potential in the future for PH Retail to completely redevelop the Walnut Street property, to potentially raze it and build luxury residential and/or retail,” Jim said.