In his fourth-quarter 2004 office market trend report, Matthew Guerrieri, research services manager of the local office of Grubb & Ellis, says some smaller office properties are already being converted into apartments or residential condos. "This trend will continue as long as the downtown residential boom remains," he predicts, "especially for class B or C properties." The residential boom combines with a CBD office vacancy rate that rose to 16% by year-end, and is destined to increase as Cira Centre, and later, Comcast Center, reach completion.

Michael Barmash of the local office of Colliers L&A, represented the sellers of both Chestnut Street properties. The other is a 13,000-sf building near 20th and Chestnut, which is west of Broad. The new owner, Penn Park Investments LLC, will use it for law offices, Barmash says. He declined to disclose the prices for either property, and identified the buyer of the larger one only as 1126 Chestnut Associates LP.

A broker familiar with buildings along Chestnut, on condition of anonymity, tells GlobeSt.com the selling price was probably below $70 per sf. He suggests the larger building, which is located along the more commercial stretch of Chestnut, sold for less than $5 million, while the smaller building's price was probably significantly below $1 million.

Locally based Binswanger/CBB negotiated the sale of the four-story Salvation Army building to SLKRC Real Estate LLC, which is currently developing plans for the site. The sale price was $4 million, or $142.85 per sf, a reflection of its location on South Third St. in one of the City's two most affluent residential neighborhoods. In contrast to the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, where several new condo high-rises are planned, Society Hill is a low-rise neighborhood with little, and little room for, additional residential construction.