PMC Property buys building adjacent to Marketplace Design Center

PMC Property Group, one of the city's biggest residential landlords, and the real estate investment firm Lubert-Adler have paid $3.25 million for a three-story building on Market Street beside the Marketplace Design Center, which they also own.

2400 Market VII L.L.C., the company that bought the Marketplace building, bought the property at 2324 Market from investor Richard Basciano's STB Investment Corp. in late June, according to city records.

Lubert-Adler CEO Dean Adler has said that his company and PMC planned to build a mid-rise tower atop the Marketplace and develop the property into offices and residences.

The companies may intend to develop the newly purchased property with shops and restaurants to serve future tenants at the Marketplace, which has few such amenities nearby, said Bill Luff, executive managing director for Colliers International's Philadelphia office.

"When you're in a more isolated location without that immediate adjacent amenity base, one would think you'd better build it, because your users are going to need it," Luff said.

STB Investment bought the 12,700-square-foot property on 4,270 square feet of land for $1.03 million in 1994, according to city records.

Adler and PMC executive vice president Jonathan Stavin did not return phone messages seeking details about their plans.

The companies purchased the Marketplace building, where dealers of furniture, carpets, and other home furnishings sell to tradespeople, such as designers and contractors, for $32.3 million in April 2014,city real estaterecords show.

The building is known for its massive whale mural by the artist Wyland on its exterior wall that faces the Schuylkill and 30th Street Station.

The disclosure of the adjacent building's recent sale comes a day after Brandywine Realty Trust said that it bought several properties two blocks to the west from Basciano for an undisclosed price. That purchase included the site of the 2013 deadly building collapse at a Salvation Army thrift shop.

Earlier this year, Basciano sold a parking garage on East Market Street near Independence Hall to Brandywine for $17 million.

215-854-2615 @jacobadelman