Breakthrough Properties Lands $130M for Philadelphia Project

2300 Market by Breakthrough. Image courtesy of Breakthrough Properties

Breakthrough Properties has closed on $130 million in construction financing and gotten underway on a 223,000-square-foot life science building on Market at S. 23rd Street, in Philadelphia’s Center City district.

Breakthrough worked with Philadelphia-based D2 Capital Advisors to secure the construction loan from Corebridge Financial. With this financing now in place, Breakthrough is starting construction on the eight-story 2300 Market by Breakthrough.

The site is adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, within a short walk of leading academic medical centers and steps from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and Rittenhouse Square.

2300 Market by Breakthrough is designed with flexible lab zones that can accommodate a wide range of research uses. The building’s amenities will include a café and lounge, fitness center and elevated terraces.

2300 Market by Breakthrough offers easy access to the SEPTA bus, trolley and commuter rail lines, as well as Amtrak routes connecting to New York City, Boston and the Washington metropolitan region via the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station.

The project architect is local studio KieranTimberlake, and Hunter Roberts is the construction manager. The development will include disassembling the original terra cotta façade of the 2314 Market building and then reinstalling it over the course of construction “to maintain an authentic streetscape that blends the old with the new,” according to Breakthrough.

The project was first announced in May of last year, and Breakthrough now anticipates delivering floors for the start of tenant fit-out in the summer of 2024.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Shane Funston and Jack Meyers are the building’s exclusive leasing agents.

Breakthrough Properties is backed by a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital.

Growing despite pains

In a prepared statement, Breakthrough Properties co-founder & CEO Dan Belldegrun said that in recent years, Philadelphia has emerged as a leading research hub for pioneering new modalities in immunology, cell and gene therapy, and mRNA-based technologies.

Life science space leasing in Philadelphia was strong in 2022, according to a March update by Cushman & Wakefield, having increased to more than 1.6 million square feet, a 173 percent jump, year-over-year. However, the second half of last year was less active, because of rising interest rates.

The life science market is substantially undersupplied, Cushman says, in part because of a pause in conversions of office space to life science use, which again was affected by macroeconomic issues.

As a result, the update says, “Most of the notable deliveries have been ground-up, purpose-built projects in locations with an existing life sciences community.”