PHILADELPHIA-Good news is on the horizon for the City of Brotherly Love. The lease market is growing, albeit incrementally. There is not too much to be carried away with, however, as much of the growth is being led by smaller firms which are doing more rearranging of space than any massive corporate expansions, which traditionally put larger progressive dents in the vacancy rates.

“This is the third quarter that we’ve tracked positive absorption,” explains Jones Lang LaSalle’s vice president, brokerage operations, here, Jennifer Lamprect. “The fourth quarter of 2010 was our first quarter of positive absorption in a number of years and the positive trend has continued.”

Lamprect notes that even some of the larger deals in the market are simply switching one large space for a comparably-sized one resulting in a zero-sum gain in the market. The smaller firms are pushing growth regionally. GlaxoSmithKline renewed its office, but there is anticipation of its new 205,000-square-foot facility, which broke ground this quarter. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) renewed its 252,000 square feet at Wanamaker Building, while expanding 60,000 square feet. One of the largest leases of the quarter was DaVita Dialysis’ new rental of 110,000 square feet in Malvern and Bala Cynwyd is leading the rest of the submarkets.