Brandywine buys site of Market Street building collapse
Brandywine Realty Trust has bought almost the entire Center City block that had been the site of 2013's deadly building collapse that flattened a Salvation Army thrift store.
Brandywine Realty Trust has bought almost the entire Center City block that had been the site of 2013's deadly building collapse that flattened a Salvation Army thrift store.
The 37,000 square feet of property purchased by the company Tuesday include all but three parcels along the southern side of Market Street between 21st and 22d streets, Brandywine president and CEO Jerry Sweeney said in an interview.
The site includes two three-story buildings that Brandywine will renovate into rental lofts, offices and retail spaces, Sweeney said. Another 30,000 square feet of the block, which are now vacant or used for parking, will be developed in the future, though the company has not decided how it will use the space, he said. All were owned by Richard Basciano.
The developable area extends from the memorial park to the collapse victims on the western end of the property to the city-owned firehouse toward the middle, neither of which were part of the transaction. One other multi-story building on the block was also excluded from the sale.
Six people were killed in the June 5, 2013, accident on the block, when a building undergoing demolition collapsed onto the thrift shop.
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