January 20-26, 2005

loose canon

Space Quest

NOT-SO-SQUARE FOOTAGE: Linda Holliday's MBC is looking for something "close to street life." Photo By: Mike Mergen

If this nationally ranked agency can't find the right office space, they're gone.

by Bruce Schimmel

We were a little surprised recently when Linda Holliday wandered over to our table at Shiroi Hana. The energetic president of the Medical Broadcasting Company (MBC) fixed us with her glittering blue eyes and asked if we knew a cool new commercial space for her medical communication agency.

Holliday explained that the building on Rittenhouse Square she's currently in is about to be partially condo-fied, so she's been weighing other options. And at the moment, they aren't so good.

"Where is the cool commercial space in Philadelphia?" she lamented over green-tea ice cream. "I don't want to move to the burbs."

The shock waves from MBC's departure would reach well beyond the loss of $25 million in revenue and 130 jobs. MBC is precisely the kind of knowledge-based company that cities are dying to get. It's a magnet to keep and attract younger, creative workers, as well as other cutting-edge enterprises. For instance, my wife's graphic design firm is among MBC's many local contractors.

Holliday loves her current location on Rittenhouse. Like many who work with her, she lives nearby. Two-thirds of MBC's employees walk, bike or take public transit to work.

"I even think some of our clients come here to work with us in part because they love our space — and they really love Philadelphia."

How could they not? From the company's perch at tree level, Rittenhouse Square in mist looks like Paris. Visitors enter the agency through a po-mo cafe with 16-foot ceilings, replete with a bustling kitchen. Employees and clients — some pierced, some in pinstripes — sip espresso and lounge on polka-dotted banquettes. The scene inside looks like part of the panorama outdoors.

"I want people to come to work with joy. Our creative people get juicy about their work because the place we're in has authenticity."

But authentic is not what Holliday would call the real estate she's seen so far. "There's a lot of inventory in the modern skyscraper category, and it's affordable. But we don't want to be in a skyscraper."

For Holliday, most skyscrapers smack of suburbia: overcontrolled, disconnected, boring. She singles out the new office tower going up next to 30th Street Station.

"I think it's a gorgeous building. But I'm concerned about what happens when you take the elevator down and you walk outside. It's going to be like a suburban strip mall. A place that's no place at all.

"My company needs to be close to street life. I want to walk to the hardware store, to a family-owned shoe store, to a neighborhood pizza shop. We need a place with lots of diversity in the surrounding real estate. When developers design in chain-sized retail spaces, you end up with chains. Instead of Nodding Head [restaurant], you get Friday's. Instead of Lou's Steaks, you get Applebee's. Yuck."

I checked with the Pennsylvania Economy League to see if there are any registries of innovative commercial spaces. There are none in Philadelphia. But if Holliday wants to move to Pittsburgh, she could check out Cool Space Locator, a database of innovative commercial projects. Cool Space Locator (www. coolspacelocator.com) is a joint project of the Pittsburgh Mayor's Office and local foundations.

Frustrated, Holliday is looking to West Philadelphia, Northern Liberties and along the Delaware River for something to save her from the 'burbs.

"If I had a magic wand, some developer would take a significant property of 200,000 to 300,000 square feet. Something that would be multiuse, with local color. We want something with an urban — not sub-urban — sophistication."

Meanwhile, Linda Holliday, a leader in the city's emerging economy, continues her quest for a savvy commercial developer to discover what Philadelphia already has. Please call her, she says, if you hear of anything.