PHILADELPHIA-The 607,471-square-foot One Franklin Plaza tower – former home of GlaxoSmithKline - is on the market.

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is promoting the 24-story building as a prime Center City site for development as a hotel, apartments or mixed uses.

“This is a unique opportunity to introduce mixed-use on a very large scale, essentially creating a destination development at the gateway to Center City Philadelphia,” said Michael Margolis of NGKF. Margolis, David Dolan and Brett Segal of NGKF's Capital Markets Group are brokering the property in concert with local market specialists Wayne Fisher and Craig Scheuerle.

The building at 200 N. 16^th St. and an adjoining property had been GlaxoSmithKline's headquarters from the time of its construction in 1980 until the company's recent consolidation to a smaller space outside the central business district. The building is now entirely vacant.

The site zoning allows varied uses: office, mixed use, apartments, hotel, health care and education.

“One Franklin will easily support a mixed multiple-use redevelopment with its three elevator banks, two lobbies and the ability to create a third lobby,” said Dolan. “For example, a university could build out student housing around one elevator bank and dedicate the other two elevator banks to classrooms and administrative offices.”

The site is located at the intersection of 16th and Race streets and provides immediate access to Interstate 676 and excellent access to public transit links including regional rail, subways, buses, Amtrak and the Airport Highspeed Line. There are 150 parking spaces allocated to the building in a 450-space underground garage.

Margolis said converting to multifamily makes sense, since “young professionals have embraced urban living to such an extent that more than a third of Philadelphia's Center City residents ages 25-34 actually commute to work in the suburbs. An apartment at One Franklin Plaza would put residents steps away from transportation options, either to commute or to reach employers in the heart of the city.”

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Center City Philly Tower Seeks New Life

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