Philadelphia Office Tower Gets $68M Refinancing

The 20-story Two Penn Center Plaza is located in the City Center neighborhood.

Two Penn Center Plaza. Image via Google Street View

Crown Two Penn Center Associates, a Pennsylvania limited partnership that is 22.16 percent owned by Optibase Ltd., has refinanced Two Penn Center Plaza, a 20-story office building in Philadelphia. The new loan has an outstanding principal balance of $67.9 million.

The existing 10-year loan on the Center City property located at 1500 John F. Kennedy Blvd. had an outstanding principal balance of approximately $44 million. According to CommercialEdge, the previous loan, originated in May 2011 by UBS, was approximately $52.2 million.

As a result of the refinancing, Crown Two Penn Center Associates generated excess cash. Optibase said its share was approximately $5 million. Crown Two Penn Center Associates will make a distribution of $2 million out of the $5 million in the upcoming weeks.


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The limited partnership acquired the office property in October 2012 for $66 million, according to CommercialEdge data. The 502,531-square-foot multi-tenant building has 478,801 square feet of leasable space, with most of the tenants being office users. The property also features 23,730 square feet of retail, including 18,530 square feet of underground retail.

Built in 1958 and completely renovated in 1988, the transit-oriented property is located within walking distance of four train stations.

Headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, Optibase invests in the fixed-income real estate field. The firm currently holds interests in properties in Switzerland, Texas and three U.S. cities: Philadelphia, Chicago and Miami.

Philadelphia Development

Also in Philadelphia, construction of 3025 John F. Kennedy Blvd.—a 28-story, 570,000-square-foot mixed-use tower at the $3.5 billion, 14-acre Schuylkill Yards innovation neighborhood—was scheduled to begin this spring.

In February, Brandywine Realty Trust, the master developer of the massive University City project in partnership with Drexel University, secured a joint venture partner for the first vertical development within the mega project. The tower will have a mix of life science, office and retail space along with 326 ultra-luxury rental units and is slated for completion in 2023.

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