Rubenstein Co. Snags Wyeth Campus In Phillyâs Red-Hot Radnor Submarket

By Dorothy Lindstrom, Senior Associate Editor

Radnor, PA – With Radnor Corporate Center 100% leased and groundbreaking slated for the new $300 million speculative Valley Creek Corporate Center, The Rubenstein Co. has sweetened its suburban Philadelphia market presence even more with the acquisition of the Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals Inc. portfolio. As Wyeth-Ayerst moves out of the 13-building campus, which will be called Radnor Financial Center, Rubenstein will undertake renovations and improvements, bringing its total planned investment in the portfolio to $270 million.

A subsidiary of American Home Products, Wyeth-Ayerst needed more space than the 1.4 million-square-foot Radnor campus could supply, and jumped at the chance to acquire the former Rhon Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals Inc. facility in Collegeville, PA, according to Peter Talman, senior vice president & director of leasing for Rubenstein.

Rubenstein plans to ultimately sell the four-building research complex, which Wyeth will vacate by the end of 2001. Also on the campus, Rubenstein plans to turn six buildings currently connected by atriums and walkways into office space supported by mall-type amenities, restaurants and other services to support a new tenant base. Retail establishments in nearby upscale Wayne, PA, will be contacted to lease that space, Talman said.

Located along the Blue Route (I-476) in the prestigious Main Line market, the Wyeth portfolio is a few hundred yards from Rubenstein’s 735,000-square-foot Radnor Corporate Center. Rents there are approaching $33.50 per foot, plus full utilities, according to Talman. In fact, the entire market is sizzling. “Radnor rents are the highest in the Philadelphia suburbs and it is the perfect place for suburban tenants,” he said. Always supply constrained, the total Radnor submarket is rougly 2 million square feet.

“It’s a pretty big deal,” said John Derham, senior managing director of Cushman & Wakefield of Pennsylvania Inc. “Wyeth is going to phase itself out of the site and it will feed space into a very strong market. This will give Rubenstein some running room to lease it up." Derham added that it was his understanding Rubenstein “went at it hard” to get the portfolio. “There was definitely some competition on it.”