May 12-18, 2005

cityspace

Delay at 20th and Market

by Kate Salute

Nearly 15 years have passed since the construction of the blue skyscraper at 1901 Market St. that serves as headquarters for Independence Blue Cross. But the building wasn't meant to be a solo act. Originally, there was to be a twin at 20th and Market, mirroring the Blue Cross Tower a la Liberty Place and Commerce Square.

Instead, Center City West was treated to an empty, dirt lot that eventually earned a white picket fence and, many years later, actual grass.

A few weeks ago, it was announced that the 36,000-square-foot site had been purchased and would be developed.

Uh, why didn't this happen 15 years ago?

Legal squabbles, that's why.

The site — which was owned by UFJ Bank of Tokyo — was never developed because of 22 separate lawsuits that barred all parties from developing it. The lawsuits "were over partnership disputes between limited partners and general partners and how business was conducted," explains broker Craig Neilson at Grubb & Ellis, who represented UFJ in the site purchase. (Neilson declined to discuss specifics of the dispute.) In late April, a summary judgment finally freed up that parcel of land, which was sold to Plymouth Meeting-based Opus East, L.L.C. Opus intends to fill the eight-tenths of an acre with something other than offices. Craig Guers, a senior vice president at Opus, says, "In all probability, it will be a mixed use [building]: retail, parking and some condominium units with amenity floors such as health clubs and the like." Opus has yet to present its plans to the city.

Although 1919 Market will be Opus' first urban development, the company has many Delaware Valley developments, including warehousing and distribution facilities for Proctor & Gamble, Estee Lauder and Circuit City.

And while the Blue Cross building will now have a neighbor, it should no longer expect a twin. For one thing, zoning laws allow for a building that contains as much as 840,000 gross square feet of space (compared to the 760,000 square feet in the Blue Cross Tower.) And Opus says we can forget the 1980s "blue mirror" look. "It will not be a blue [glass] skin building like the Blue Cross Tower," says Guers. "We are looking at a number of different concepts."