Lease signed at 1700 Market in downtown Philadelphia’s Center City
CommonGrounds signs long-term lease on two floors in first Philadelphia location
CommonGrounds Workplace has signed a long-term lease for 62,461 square feet in the 32-story, 1700 Market building in the heart of Philadelphia’s Center City. The workplace is scheduled to open late January 2020.
CommonGrounds is an enterprise-grade, Workplace-as-a-Service company collaborating with office owners and providing flexible space and coworking solutions for companies of all sizes in multiple U.S. cities.
CommonGrounds will build their flexible workplace on two floors in the recently renovated 850,000 square foot building. Located two blocks west of Suburban Station, the 1700 Market building provides quick access to SEPTA’s regional rail and subway systems. Amenities in the building include a pharmacy, two restaurants, day care, hair salon, bank, and parking garage. Within a short walk from the workplace is Rittenhouse Square, which is surrounded by renowned restaurants, high fashion boutiques, 5-star hotels, and cultural venues, including the Kimmel Center.
This is the sixth CommonGrounds Workplace lease signed in 2019, as part of the company’s $100 million Series A funding expansion program. The company announced long-term leases this year totaling over 263,000 square feet in Midtown Atlanta, Los Angeles’ financial district, Seattle’s South Lake Union, and two Washington D.C. locations in downtown and Capitol Riverfront. Also, in 2019, CommonGrounds opened new workplaces in Minneapolis, Portland, and Salt Lake City and is opening three additional locations this summer with nine more under construction.
“As a former resident of Philadelphia, it is an honor to announce our new location coming to 1700 Market,” said Jacob Bates, chief executive officer for CommonGrounds Workplace. “The Center City location is fantastic, sitting just a few blocks between City Hall and Rittenhouse Square. Our premium enterprise-grade workplace is a great compliment to the diverse and evolving business community providing a complemental alternative to a modern high-quality corporate headquarters.”
Philadelphia’s 1700 Market is an 850,000 square foot, Class A trophy office building located in the heart of Center City. Originally, 1700 Market was the tallest building in Philadelphia built during the 1960s and sits on 1.39 acres. The property also includes a five-story, 675-stall parking garage – the highest of any building on Market Street. A recent multi-million-dollar renovation was completed by new owner, Shorenstein Company, on the ground-floor plaza, lobby and public areas, a rooftop deck space, and the addition of a world-class amenity floor with a 100-person training room, multiple conference rooms, and a 6,000 square foot fitness center.
CommonGrounds’ regional headquarters is in Philadelphia. There are currently 15 employees in this location with active hiring underway. The Philadelphia location will support CommonGrounds headquarters, in San Diego, and the East Coast growth plans and projects currently under construction. In March, CommonGrounds announced a lease in Atlanta’s Midtown that will open in early 2020.
“With our growing regional headquarters and our bullishness on Philly’s vibrant business community, we are very excited to incorporate our HQaaS (Headquarters-as-a-Service) product in this market,” said Bates. “We have found that people and businesses need various typologies of spaces to be productive and reduce friction in their workday. We have designed multiple spaces to accomplish this throughout our new location, including video-ready conference rooms, phone booths, think rooms, well-being rooms, and additional event and larger gathering areas.”
The renovation of the CommonGounds space will be overseen by the company’s in-house design division. Sound abating demountable wall systems by Italy-based Tecno and customizable enterprise-grade furniture by San Francisco-based Pair will be utilized in the workplace.
Joseph Wolff, Kevin Maloney, George Cauffman and David Mendez with CBRE represented the owner, Shorenstein Company. Jim Suber with Strategic Real Estate Advisory and Michael Gallagher with The Flynn and Company represented CommonGrounds in the negotiations.
