Conshy Office Space in the News

A rendering of Seven Tower Bridge

Last week the Philadelphia Business Journal reported that larger companies seeking office space in Conshohocken will have a harder time finding space due to a recent uptick of leases.

“The Conshohocken office submarket has been chipping away at vacancies in several buildings and causing the market to tighten up.  The lease deals have translated into a scarcity of large, contiguous blocks of space being available in the area, which includes office buildings in Conshohocken and West Conshohocken.”

As it mentions, the main issue is with contiguous blocks of space, meaning if you have a large company looking to make a home in the Conshohocken, it is becoming harder and harder to find a location.

“If someone is looking for 75,000 to 100,000 square feet in Conshohocken, it doesn’t exist any more,” said Scott Gabrielsen, an office broker with Binswanger who completed several recent deals and has some large leases in the works at the Spring Mill Corporate Center. ‘Conshohocken is doing great’.”

Having read that, I started to think about what this situation does to the value of the Borough-owned former Verizon Building.  I called Mr. Gabrielson to ask and he stated, “The Verizon building has not been considered class-A office space.  It is not as desirable as the newer office buildings located along the river, however, now that there is a lack of space there will be new attention brought to the property.”

In addition to creating a new opportunity for the Borough to sell the Verizon Building, the lack of available space also means that Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp. may also decide to begin construction of Seven Tower Bridge, pictured at the top of the article along the river.  This office tower will go in the space on the east side of the bridge that so many people took pictures of during the flooding.

So who took all of this office space in Conshy?  Its a mix of new leases and renewals:

  • Academy in Manayunk signed a 15-year lease on 63,512 square feet at River Park II, an office building at 1200 River Road.
  • Kynetic took 35,400 square feet at Two Millennium at 225 Washington St.
  • NSM Inc. renewed and expanded at Spring Mill Corporate Center.
  • Monetate moved into 25,000 square feet at Quaker Park.
  • Main Line Health signed on for 5,000 square feet at Spring Mill Corporate Center.
  • Northrup Grumman renewed a 25,000-square-foot lease for five years at 200 Four Falls.

Not everyone is staying in Conshy though.  As also reported by the Philadelphia Business Journal, Viridity Energy moved from a 5,000 square foot space in Conshy to a 15,000 square foot space in Center City.

“Viridity, a provider of software and services used by building managers and others to manage their energy consumption, moved downtown to be in a centrally located spot with access to transportation accessible to clients in New York and Washington. It also wanted to attract talented employees, and commit to Philadelphia. It received no money from the state or the city to move.”

I wonder how their employees will enjoy paying for parking and the city wage tax.