Several factors, experts say, led to the change in direction:
Comcast doubled its lease space in the new building at 17th Street and JFK Boulevard to about 1 million square feet since 2005. Citizens Bank also has rented two floors for its eastern Pennsylvania headquarters. The Comcast Center is 96 percent leased, said John Gattuso, the senior vice president of Liberty Property Trust in charge of building and leasing Comcast Center.
Two health-care systems, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, jumped the Schuylkill and leased hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space for administrative functions. The organizations signed leases in the Wanamaker Building and Centre Square, at 1500 Market St., which Comcast is departing for its new digs.
The top third of Two Liberty Place, one of the biggest buildings in Center City, is being converted into luxury condos, taking top-class office space off the market.
Center City has held onto most of its major office tenants in recent years. Meanwhile, organic growth is leading Center City firms to boost their office space needs, and the job market has stabilized.
"It didn't turn out as bad as all the naysayers thought," said H. Hetherington Smith, senior vice president and branch manager for Studley Inc., a commercial real estate firm, of the office market.
Smith said he believed the market had cooled somewhat since January.
"I don't feel as optimistic as I did, but it's still a good market," she said.
"The market has had a good two or three years to think about Comcast and move around it," said George Cauffman, senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., the nation's largest commercial real estate firm. "Almost every tenant out there wants big space," he said. "It's trending toward a landlord market."
