GRM Buys 242,000-SF Warehouse in Budd Center

According to data from the local office of Colliers Lanard & Axilbund, the average selling price for industrial space in Philadelphia County is $24.98 per sf, which would put the price at approximately $6 million. However, on condition of anonymity, an industrial specialist in the area tells GlobeSt.com GRM probably paid under $5 million.

The building is one of about 20 of varying size on the 75-acre vacant former Budd manufacturing site in the East Falls/West Allegheny section of North Philadelphia, which Preferred acquired for redevelopment in late 2004. The property is a designated Keystone Opportunity Zone, which provides occupants with generous city and state tax abatements through 2011.

This sale follows an agreement between Preferred and Temple University Health System to transform 260,000 sf of former factory space in the center into the health system's new administrative headquarters. Temple anticipates taking occupancy late this year.

In all, the center's buildings, which were completed between 1917 and 1988, have an aggregate of 2.4 million sf. Spaces from 15,000 sf to 750,000 sf are available and, "since adaptive reuse of existing buildings provides for a lower cost basis over new construction," Michael G. O'Neill, Preferred's founder and chairman, says "future tenants will experience a direct economic savings realized through highly competitive rents."

GRM's addition to the site "fits nicely with the development plan we have been working on with the city," O'Neill says. "And while their use is classified industrial, document storage operations are extremely low impact from a traffic standpoint." GRM has locations in seven US metropolitan areas and in Shanghai. Of Budd Commerce Center, Avishay Levanovsky, GRM CEO, cited "excellent security, and outstanding structure and great proximity to both Philadelphia and Delaware markets."