Office Space

The iconic 1616 Walnut Street building - listed on the National Register of Historic Places - has been purchased by Federal Capital Partners of Chevy Chase, Md., which is considering converting the office space to residential use. The sale of the 25-story Art Deco building marks FCP's second investment in Center City Philadelphia, after a $7.5 million loan it made in July to back redevelopment of the Robert Morris Building at 1701 Arch St....

Money's tight for Pennsylvania. But last month, a state agency went to Wall Street and borrowed $107 million to enrich a California hedge fund, a Wall Street bank, and other speculators in a Harrisburg office building. Result: Investors who bought bonds tied to the city's Forum Place at deep discounts are being paid full price to turn them in, giving them millions in profit. But state officials say that's still a good deal for taxpayers - because the new arrangement will allow state workers to park their cars at a discount.

Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, reported Tuesday that its profit fell 50 percent in the last quarter of 2011, partly because of declining revenue from the cholesterol drug Lipitor. The company's situation for all of last year - nearly flat revenue, a declining workforce, but a 21 percent profit increase - points to the tumultuous changes in the industry, globally and locally. One of the "key takeaways" in the slide presentation that Pfizer promoted to Wall Street analysts was that the company "achieved total cost reduction targets associated with the Wyeth acquisition one year ahead of schedule.

Three firms have been picked to share office space with The Inquirer and other Philadelphia Media Network outlets in the Project Liberty Digital Incubator , the newest local space dedicated to start-up tech businesses. The firms, selected by PMN adviser and incubator operator Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania , are CloudMine , a smartphone applications developer platform headed by CEO Brendan McCorkle; voter-guide app developer ElectNext , headed by Princeton and Wharton-trained political scientist Keya J. Dannenbaum , and SnipSnap , a print-to-mobile coupon scanner conversion service headed by Ted Mann . "We're providing these companies free rent, free office equipment, and the infrastructure to operate their business, day-to-day, for a six-month period, while they agree to develop a media product for consideration" by The Inquirer, the Daily News , Philadelphia SportsWeek , and Philly.com , spokesman Mark Block said.

Skanska USA, a construction-management and design-build company based in Blue Bell, has been awarded a $60 million contract to continue renovation work it began at Janssen Research & Development L.L.C., in Spring House in 2004. The latest project with Janssen, an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson, involves renovation to 180,000 square feet of office space to create modern and progressive laboratory upgrades, Skanska said. Construction is expected to be complete by December 2012.

What to get Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez and her husband, Tomas Sánchez, for the holidays? How about his and hers political donations? That would be jumping the gun, but only a little. Tomas Sánchez confirmed via e-mail that he is "seriously" considering a run for the state House in the newly redrawn 197th District. Jewell Williams currently holds that seat, but he is leaving to become Philadelphia's new sheriff. As "Heard in the Hall" reported previously, Williams has been touting his 23-year-old daughter, Jewel, to replace him. She is a "processing specialist," helping the Philadelphia Parking Authority auction off impounded vehicles.

CITY Councilman Bill Greenlee is about to move into one of the best digs in City Hall - a spacious office with two bathrooms, a kitchenette, a ceiling fan and a large alcove behind a big wooden desk - assigned to him by incoming Council President Darrell Clarke. Greenlee was Clarke's closest ally in his recent successful bid to become Council president. Coincidence? Greenlee thinks so. "The space opened up, I requested it and got it," Greenlee said, adding that when constituents come to the office he wants "to try to have as nice accommodations as possible.

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.

Ho-hum, Philadelphia's third-tallest building is changing hands. Two Liberty Place, built for Cigna Corp. in the late 1980s, is being purchased by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and Parkway Properties Inc. , a real estate investment trust in Jackson, Miss., in a deal struck in April. Usually, word of a big office-building sale in Center City generates lots of buzz. This one? Not so much, probably because of the complexity of this latest deal involving Two Liberty, the 57-story tower at 50 S. 16th St. I stumbled across the pending sale during a routine search of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission . On April 11, Parkway Properties - which should not be confused with Parkway Corp.