January 13 | Real Estate Roundup: Bakers Centre water damage | Shirt Corner | Lannett purchses IRS property | Public Ledger receivership | Frankford Ave lofts | Equus on Philly | Baltimore Ave blight

Welcome to the working week Streeters. Here’s a real estate roundup to start off your Monday morning:

A 119 year old, 4-foot water main burst beneath the brand new Bakers Centre parking lot early Saturday morning. The Daily News reports that 13 million gallons of muddy water flooded the ShopRite and other shops in the new development on Fox Street at Hunting Park Avenue. PWD crews worked from just after 4am on Saturday to yesterday evening to stop the water and stores were able to open on Sunday.

In Old City, Shirt Corner and several of its neighbors are about to be alternately overhauled into a new mixed-use building. In her latest column Inga Saffron mourns the loss of Shirt Corner’s plucky “retail hucksterism,” which once defined the intersection of 3rd and Market streets, but appreciates the reconstruction planned and residential growth in the neighborhood. The preservation-minded reconstruction is being paid for by a CVS that will be the ground floor tenant, a bland but necessary anchor.

A Northeast-based pharmaceutical company purchased part of the former IRS processing center on Roosevelt Boulevard, reports Northeast Times. Lannett purchased two of the former IRS properties, intending to develop them for manufacturing, research and development, and warehouse space.

The Public Ledger building overlooking Independence Hall is in receivership, the Business Journal reports. There is an outstanding $42.5 million loan on the property, and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is slated to become the receiver of the property. The Public Ledger’s main tenant is the General Services Administration.

It’s been more than a decade in the making, but a former industrial property at Frankford Ave and Wildey has finally been converted to 28 rental apartments, Naked Philly reports. The building previously housed the Martin Landenberger Hosiery Mill, then Morse Elevator Works.

Why won’t Equus Capital Partners, one of the biggest Philly-based real estate investment companies, invest in the city? Equus’ Daniel DiLella told Philly Deals that the suburbs are a better bet because the city’s rents are too cheap while costs (labor, construction, taxes, etc) are too high.

Will the blight at 51st and Baltimore Avenue change anytime soon? City Paper looks at Baltimore Avenue Redevelopment Corporation’s hopes to replace a vacant lot and row of blighted houses with an expanded medical center and student housing, and how threats of eminent domain could just prolong the state of decrepitude.

The Buzz is Eyes on the Street’s morning news digest. Have a tip? Send it along.
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