Office Space

Never mind the stop-and-go traffic on Route 130. Don't mention rush hour around the Medford Circle. Debbie Tornquist is certain her company, Tempel Steel, got a heck of a deal in moving from Bucks County to Burlington County. "We don't like the roads there. The roads are nice here," said the administrative assistant for the Chicago-based company, which moved to the Bromley Commons office park in Burlington Township last summer. "There's no traffic, no lights. " A relative lack of traffic congestion, competitive rents, newer roads and easier access to both Philadelphia and New York are being cited as reasons for a boom in office-space rentals in Burlington County.

ROBIN BLOUNT walked up to what used to be a Social Security Administration field office in North Philadelphia this week and was shocked and angry. It was early afternoon, normal business hours, but steel gates covered the glass windows of the office on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 15th Street. A sign inside the gates read: "The Social Security Administration field office previously operating at this location IS NOW CLOSED. " People were advised to visit the Social Security office in Center City at 15th Street and JFK Boulevard, 2 Penn Center, for service.

In Center City's competitive office market, four tenants are seeking enough space that a commitment by one could spark a new spire on the skyline. In the last year, Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby, a management-consulting firm; FMC Corp., a manufacturer of machinery and chemicals; CoreStates Financial Corp., the parent of Philadelphia National Bank, and the Conrail freight railroad have announced that they are evaluating their space needs. The firms, with space needs ranging from more than 200,000 square feet to 1 million square feet, are being courted by developers whose proposed towers are on hold for want of a lead tenant.

Zoe Selzer spent much of 2011 searching the city's building stock - from Northern Liberties to West Philadelphia - for a landlord willing to house what organizers believe is the region's first incubator exclusively for green businesses. What she heard was "no" in a variety of ways. That's because what she wanted along with about 5,000 square feet was to have that space at a drastically low rent or, preferably, no rent at all. "Nobody is ever going to do that for you," Selzer recalled was one response.

No vacancies? Well not exactly. But if the current trend continues in Philadelphia's suburbs, developers of office buildings and corporate parks may want to dust off their old No Vacancy signs. The suburban office market remains strong and vacancy rates are dropping despite the addition of nearly two million square feet of office space in the last six months, a new survey shows. The Valley Forge-Wayne area had the largest growth with the addition of 881,000 square feet of office space, while Bala Cynwyd boasted the lowest office-vacancy rate - 1.4 percent - of eight key suburban markets surveyed, according to Helmsley-Greenfield Inc., the Philadelphia real estate broker that conducted the study.

The Senate announced yesterday that it would get into the office-renting business, apparently to circumvent a state Ethics Commission ruling that prohibited a legislator from renting space from himself. The commission ruled in October that Rep. Italo Cappabianca (D., Erie) could not pay himself $500 monthly from his state expense account for a House district office in a building he owns. The seven-member commission in June voted 4-3 against a request to reconsider the case, citing a state ethics law provision against legislators' using their position to obtain personal financial gain.

Three years ago, with office vacancies in the upper teens and rents plunging, some building owners predicted hard times if a new skyscraper came onto the downtown scene. One owner, David Campoli, contended in 2004, during the public debate over public subsidies for a proposed 57-story high-rise for Comcast Corp., that the "Center City market is very bad. . . . There are 184 full-floor vacancies. " From 2000 to 2004, the city lost about 33,000 jobs. But seemingly against the odds, Center City pulled a rubber-burning 180-degree turn.

Easttown Township is considering buying an empty office building on Lancaster Avenue to use for offices, the public library and the police department. Township officials say they need more room, and the question of how to solve the space crunch dominated the agenda of Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting in Easttown Township. About 100 residents gathered in the auditorium of the former Berwyn Elementary School, the current home of the township's administrative offices. The township, entering into the last year of a 10-year lease agreement with the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, is considering alternatives.

The vacancy rate for suburban office space dipped from 17.4 percent at the end of June to 16.6 percent at the end of September, according to a survey by a commercial real estate broker. In downtown Philadelphia, the vacancy rate was 13.8 percent at the end of September, up a 10th of a percent from the June rate, according to Robert W. Walters, executive vice president of CB Commercial Real Estate Group. The vacancy rate in the Exton-West Chester, King of Prussia and the Main Line dropped slightly, while the rate of vacancy increased slightly on the Upper Main Line.

The parent company for Philadelphia's Graduate Hospital and New Jersey's Zurbrugg Memorial today agreed to purchase a Center City church slated for conversion to an office building for $4.25 million five years into their 10 year lease. The $4.25 million figure is what Edward S. Brown, a Philadelphia developer, says it will cost his company, The Edward S. Brown Group, to renovate The Church of New Jerusalem, 22nd and Chestnut streets, into office space by taking advantages of all federal tax credits for the renovation of historical buildings.

ROBIN BLOUNT walked up to what used to be a Social Security Administration field office in North Philadelphia this week and was shocked and angry. It was early afternoon, normal business hours, but steel gates covered the glass windows of the office on Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 15th Street. A sign inside the gates read: "The Social Security Administration field office previously operating at this location IS NOW CLOSED. " People were advised to visit the Social Security office in Center City at 15th Street and JFK Boulevard, 2 Penn Center, for service.

THE PAST DECADE in Center City has brought a lot to celebrate: more housing and a bigger residential population; more families with young children; more highly educated workers than any other part of the city; and an arts and cultural scene second only to midtown Manhattan. Yet the number of office jobs has stagnated as the suburbs lure professional workers, according to the State of Center City Philadelphia 2013 report released Monday by the Center City District. "In some sense, the state of Center City has never been better, in terms of vibrancy of workforce, vibrancy of families, tourism here," said Paul Levy, the district's president and chief executive.

The 660-lawyer Drinker Biddle & Reath L.L.P. corporate law firm is expanding its New York branch and shrinking its Philadelphia headquarters space, but not its workforce here. The firm is doubling its Manhattan space at Silverstein Properties' 1177 Sixth Ave. tower to 31,000 square feet, even as it prepares to downsize its Philadelphia flagship office at Brandywine Property Trust's One Logan Square to 155,000 square feet in 2014. That will be down from 209,000 square feet, and to seven floors from the current 10. Drinker signed a 10-year lease at the New York tower, where listed rents run in the high $70s per square foot.

The 660-lawyer Drinker Biddle & Reath L.L.P. corporate law firm is expanding its New York branch and shrinking its Philadelphia headquarters space, but not its workforce here. The firm is doubling its Manhattan space at Silverstein Properties' 1177 Sixth Ave. tower to 31,000 square feet, even as it prepares to downsize its Philadelphia flagship office at Brandywine Property Trust's One Logan Center to 155,000 square feet in 2014. That will be down from 209,000 square feet, and to seven floors from 10 presently.

CHRISTOPHER Watson said he feels an obligation to write music about the violence and other life stories in his North Philadelphia neighborhood. Recently, a close friend suffered a broken jaw and a broken hand when a group of young men jumped him. "It makes me upset," said Watson, a 17-year-old rapper who uses the stage name "Bless. " "It's just not right. He could have died. . . . I write about stopping the violence. " Watson, a high school senior, is one of several young people set to perform Friday as part of the Uptown Theater's Youth Got Talent showcase.

One of Philadelphia's largest commercial landlords may be facing a battle over control. CommonWealth REIT , the Newton, Mass.-based owner of the 54-story BNY Mellon Center and 24-story One Franklin Plaza, had released its 2012 financial results Monday and disclosed plans to raise $450 million by issuing more shares. On Tuesday, two of the company's largest shareholders blasted that plan in a regulatory filing and urged CommonWealth to change its management structure, buy back stock, and deleverage its balance sheet.

B   ILL DECKER, 40, of Media, is president of the Hub, which he co-founded in 2004 to provide specialized meeting space and technology/business-support services. The Hub Commerce Square, a 23,000-square-foot meeting-and-event space at 20th and Market streets, opened last May. Already open were the Hub CityView, at 30 S. 17th St., and the Hub Cira Centre, across from the 30th Street station. Q: How did you come up with the idea for the business? A: We bet that companies would use less office space in the future.

On a day when Michael Dell felt confident enough to announce a $24.4 billion leveraged buyout of the PC maker he founded came word of two less successful outcomes locally. The maker of the Zicam line of cold remedies said it withdrew an offer made in October to acquire Doylestown-based ProPhase Labs Inc. , the maker of Cold-Eeze lozenges. In a filing with the SEC last fall, Matrixx Laboratories Inc. disclosed that it has been trying to acquire ProPhase since May. Matrixx offered to acquire ProPhase for $1.40 per share in September, but was rebuffed.

The nonprofit Camden Children's Garden has two months to vacate most of its state-owned property before the land is transferred to the Adventure Aquarium next door. In a letter sent last week, the New Jersey Department of Treasury ordered Children's Garden director Michael Devlin to remove all property - including the facility's amusement rides, gazebo, and giant dinosaur - by March 31. The garden has the option to sell its items to Herschend Family Entertainment, the private owner of the aquarium as well as amusement parks around the country.