Within the renewal agreement, Fisher says, there is "substantialtenant improvement capital for renovations." The renovations arebeing done by locally based Ballinger, an architectural firm thatspecializes in office space design and recently relocated into thebuilding. It is a 12-story, 737,000-sf structure that was built in1925.

First-quarter 2004 data from the local office of Trammell CrowCo. puts the average asking rental rate for office space in theMarket Street East submarket of Center City at $21.04 per sf.However, the consensus among several Center City office brokers,who spoke to GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity, is that therate is probably under $20 per sf.

Fisher negotiated the law library's initial lease in thebuilding in 1984 when it relocated is headquarters, services, andextensive book collections from the Widener Building at One SouthPenn Square across from City Hall.