Office Space

The last time he worked at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Thomas A. Mills Jr.'s goals were basic: "To pick up some book-and-beer money. " It was 1983-84. The Northeast Philadelphia native had served five years in the Navy as a nuclear-engineering officer and was on another adventure - to earn an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School. His Navy Yard work was as a part-time driller with a reserve group. At 55, he has returned to the same Delaware River port, this time with loftier ambitions than pulling in some spending money.

"The worst-case scenario of a 2 percent dip in growth hardly qualifies as a 'what-if' stress situation. " - Sony Kapoor, of think tank Re-Define, on "stress tests" by the European Banking Authority (in 2009, the eurozone economy contracted 4.1 percent) "The availability of menthol cigarettes has an adverse impact on public health by increasing the number of smokers with resulting premature death and avoidable mortalities. " - Mark Clanton, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, on a Food and Drug Administration advisory report on minty flavoring in cigarettes "The report does not set FDA policy, does not set FDA actions.

It's great that the federal bank bailout program known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program will cost taxpayers much less than the $356 billion originally projected. At $25 billion, the cost is still large. But as the Congressional Oversight Panel said in its final report on the Treasury Department's implementation of TARP, what's unknown is how much the success of TARP in stabilizing the financial system may cost us in the future. Because the federal government showed its willingness in a crisis to rescue anything deemed "too big to fail.

When computer magnate Michael Dell closed the deal to buy upper Main Line business-software maker Boomi last year, boss Robert Moul said he was hopeful this merger would create jobs at his firm, not kill them. "Some folks were skeptical," Moul recalls. "We're already expanding and taking on more projects within Dell. We'll be doubling staff size, adding some 30 heads here in Berwyn, and expanding office space. " Dell Boomi met applicants Tuesday at the Dolce Hotel in King of Prussia to fill posts such as Application Integration Specialist and Cloud Operations Architect.

First Niagara Financial Group Inc., which entered the Philadelphia market last April through the purchase of Harleysville National Corp., said Monday it would consolidate local corporate operations in Plymouth Meeting from five scattered sites. The move is part of First Niagara's expansion efforts in the region because the new location near the intersection of Interstates 76 and 476 provides relatively easy access to Philadelphia and South Jersey, said Bob Kane, the bank's eastern Pennsylvania regional president.

The pair of Center City office buildings are not likely to turn many heads - due to no fault of their own. One and Three Franklin Plaza simply have been upstaged by the glistening behemoth just a few blocks from them - the Comcast Center - and the equally stunning Cira Centre a dozen blocks west. But in recent weeks the Franklin Plaza duo, tucked along 16th Street between Vine and Race Streets, have become the focus of much attention. A little more than two weeks ago, pharmaceutical titan GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C.

Thomas Properties Group of Los Angeles, which owns Commerce Square at 2001 and 2005 Market St., has agreed to joint ownership of the 41-story twin office towers with Brandywine Realty Trust of Philadelphia. The towers are made up of 1.9 million square feet of Class A office space. In return for $25 million of preferred equity to the partnerships, Brandywine will become a 25 percent limited partner in both properties. Thomas is also the developer of the residential condo tower Murano at 21st and Market Streets.

The approach evokes the dream home: a thicket of pines along a winding drive, obscuring a 19th-century mansion tucked along Wissahickon Avenue in West Mount Airy. The call of cicadas drowns out the sound of gravel crunching under the car's tires. As the car moves around the drive's last bend, the manse reveals itself in all its gothic glory. Ahhh ... home. It's easy to understand why George Clifford Thomas and his wife, Caroline, rarely left this estate during the late 1800s.

In better times - that is to say, when companies were clamoring for office space rather than looking to jettison it - property management didn't have to amount to much. Now, those "days of putting the lipstick on the pig are long gone," said Richard McClure, managing director of Kennedy Wilson Properties Ltd., which takes care of the 32-story Aramark Tower on Market Street in Center City. "It's all about [tenant] retention, retention, retention. " And about finding ways to operate the buildings more economically.

Perhaps those visions of Hollywood glitz for humble Norristown were unduly rosy, like most showbiz dreams. For now, the hyped plan to revive the hard-bitten Montgomery County seat with one of the largest movie studios on the East Coast is off the table, replaced by the more pragmatic construction of office space for a janitorial concern and a Pathmark. The latter, aimed at completion early next year, would be the municipality's first new full-service supermarket in a generation.