Arden Puts Seven Penn Center Up For Sale

Robert Fahey, EVP, and Doug Joseph, first VP in the local office of CB Richard Ellis, are heading the marketing effort. "There is no asking price, which is typical for this kind of asset," Fahey tells GlobeSt.com. Arden acquired the building in 1995, and, according to Fahey, it is now 88% leased. A first-quarter 2006 report by CBRE puts the average asking rent rate in Market West at $23.02 per sf.

"We've been holding it for longer than our usual timeframe," Stephen Perna, SVP of Arden, tells GlobeSt.com. "It's time to test the market. We'll let the market dictate price."

Fahey says its decision to sell now is "opportune timing. Arden's had the property for just over 10 years, and there's an appetite for office assets here. Interest is very strong," he says, with most of it coming from national companies, although buyers from Germany and Australia have also shown interest. "This is in the dead-center location. Market between 17th and 18th is the Center City office market goal post."

This February 1818 Market St. traded for $155.44 per sf; 1760 Market traded for $156.91 per sf in March, and the following month Four Penn Center traded for $208 per sf. On condition of anonymity, a Center City office broker tells GlobeSt.com, "Seven Penn will probably trade at the lower end of that spectrum. Four Penn Center had recently been stripped to the bone and totally renovated, while Seven Penn underwent major renovations about 15 years ago. Also, Four Penn had a lot of very credit-worthy tenants on long-term leases." Like Four Penn, Seven Penn was completed in the mid-1960s.