Wells Fargo Takes 110,000 SF in 10-Year Deal

With the Wells Fargo agreement, the building is 80% pre-leased. Other tenants are Synergy, Mita Management and AdminServer at the Wharf. The Wells Fargo lease has "10-year deal terms," according to Rob Florig, spokesman for Preferred. The rental rate is undisclosed. The consensus of two area brokers, who spoke to GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity, is that the rental rate probably falls between $25 and $27.25 per sf.

Industrial operations ceased at the station in 1981, and Preferred acquired the building and 90-acre riverfront property from PECO in 2000. Construction cost for redevelopment of the building, which is Phase I of the complex, exceeded $60 million, Florig says. Wharf at Rivertown is one of 39 Keystone Opportunity Zones in this state, and the tenants receive major tax exemptions through 2013. Florig says the building will be completed on Oct. 1 and that is when Wells will take occupancy.

Mike Balitsaris and Miquel Pena of Preferred Real Estate Advisors, the brokerage arm of the developer and owner, represented both owner and tenant in the negotiations. Des Moines, IA-based Wells Fargo Financial is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co., the financial services company based in San Francisco. It anticipates employing 450 here and projects a doubling of sales over the next three years, which it anticipates will result in an additional 250 jobs.

Michael O'Neill, Preferred's founder and chairman, says, "The Wharf is the poster child for what KOZs were designed to achieve and will help spur additional growth in the region. The culmination of efforts by the county, city, state, federal government, private investment, Citizens Bank, and the labor unions goes well beyond the project in its impact on Chester."

O'Neill founded Preferred in 1992 specifically to redevelop underutilized and functionally obsolete real estate. Since then, it has grown its portfolio to more than 8 million sf of predominantly office assets.