Macquarie Investment Management to Relocate Philly HQ

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

100 Independence Mall West

Come 2020, Macquarie Investment Management will be relocating its Philadelphia U.S. headquarters to 100 Independence Mall West in the city’s downtown. The announcement came from Macquarie and Keystone Property Group, which owns the historic Class A building. Macquarie will be occupying 145,000 square feet.

Macquarie Investment Management’s present Philly location is at 2005 Market St., about a mile and a half west of the new location. “We occupy relatively the same amount of space in our current location, but the new space will allow for a more contiguous and collaborative workplace,” a Macquarie spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive.

Designed by Pietro Belluschi and completed in 1965, the nine-story property was formerly known as the Rohm and Haas Building and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

100 Independence Mall West

Keystone Property Group acquired the approximately 400,000-square-foot building in 2013. As part of a $25 million renovation, the building’s formerly empty ground floor and lower level was converted into an indoor-outdoor experience for pedestrians with Independence Beer Garden and the La Colombe coffee cafe. In addition, Keystone installed a 110-space public parking garage in the building’s former basement.

Mitch Marcus, Tom Weitzel and Ashley Parrillo of JLL represented Keystone. Macquarie was represented by Glenn Blumenfeld and Scott Crumley of Tactix.

Macquarie’s U.S. mutual fund business has been in Philadelphia since 1929, Shawn Lytle, deputy global head of Macquarie Investment Management & president of Delaware Funds by Macquarie, noted in a prepared statement.

100 Independence Mall West is only a short distance to several of Philadelphia’s cultural landmarks, including the Liberty Bell, the National Constitution Center and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Macquarie Investment Management is a global asset management firm and part of Macquarie Group.

A slow quarter, with life ahead

In Philadelphia’s Center City, Keystone is also repositioning One Washington Square, the former home of life insurance company Penn Mutual.

The average overall office vacancy for Philly’s CBD edged up by 100 bps year-over-year, from 10.5 to 11.5 percent, according to a second-quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield. A couple of sizable relocation/consolidations helped drive negative absorption in the second quarter.

Despite this, overall absorption is expected to be positive by the end of the year, as the city’s employment rises.

Image courtesy of Keystone Property Group