Philadelphia-area office properties taken off the market - Kansas City Business Journal:

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The Colonial Penn building on East Market Street in Philadelphia was put up for sale in March just to be takenm off in May whenoffers didn’t meet the seller’s expectations. It’s not the only one. Amongg the other office properties that have met a similare fate are 1700 EveshamCorporate Center, Curtis Center, Public Ledgef Building, and a smattering of office and industrial propertie between South Jersey and King of Prussia as well as a luxury apartment complex in Universitty City. Transactions were expected to be off, but the depthj of the lackluster sales has surprised the realestatd community.
For the first quarter of this the Philadelphia metropolitan area rangup $30 millionh in commercial property sales, according to LoopNet data. A year ago, it talliefd $265 million in sales, which was stil l off. Three properties have sold so far this year as comparedx to 25 during the same periofdlast year, according to . “There have been a number of offering s that have come to the markeyt and beentaken off,” said Jerr y Kranzel, an investment broker with . “It’sd purely because we’re in a very challenging capital market environmentrighyt now.
The lending environment is the worst that it has been in 20 Commercial mortgagebacked securities oncepumped $250 billion of money for real estats acquisitions. “That is essentially Kranzel said, and banks and other financialinstitutions haven’t compensated for the lack of commercial backe funds. “A lot of things would have to happebn in the second half of the year to make up for thefirstt half,” said Doug Joseph, an investmentt broker at . It’s not just Philadelphia. Nationally sales are off, too.
Comparee with last year, the volumr of office sales in the central busineszs districts across thecountry nose-divex 80 percent and dropped by 78 percent in the suburbs, accordingg to data from Real Capitapl Analytics. Aside from financing, another hurdle is “There’s a gap between seller’ s and buyer’s expectation on values,” said who has some office buildings up for saleand isn’ t certain whether they will be taken off of the Other buildings, in which owners haven’t decidedx to pull off the market, just sit and sit.
When Sid Smit of GVA Smith Mack put on the marketya 21,000-square-foot Big Brothers/Bi Sisters building on 13th Street in Philadelphia a year ago, ther were about 20 competing properties also up for “Now I would have to add to that Smith said, adding the first 20 continud to languish on the market. As for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters building, Smith said he is close to signin an agreementof sale.
Some landlords are still hopinfg to strike a deal in spite ofdifficulr conditions, as in the case of Eight Towefr Bridge in Conshohocken, which was put up for sale last and the former location of the on North 21st Streer in Philadelphia that has been on the marker since last June and stilkl hasn’t snagged a buyer.