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PennCap plans advanced marketing effort for Lehigh Valley Academy offices being vacated in 2023
Stacy Wescoe//July 15, 2020
PennCap plans advanced marketing effort for Lehigh Valley Academy offices being vacated in 2023
Stacy Wescoe//July 15, 2020//
With the Lehigh Valley Academy charter school planning to build and move to a facility of its own in September, 2023, PennCap Properties has begun looking for a new tenant.
JLL and ALT will be leading the leasing efforts for the five properties located along Valley Center Parkway in the Lehigh Valley Corporate Center in Bethlehem, as well as other properties in the business park that have vacancies. In all, the team will be looking to secure leases for six buildings.
Phil Schenkel, executive vice president of JLL, will be on the team leading the effort. He said it is fairly unique to begin marketing a property that won’t be available for three years, but he also said it’s a smart move.
“PennCap is taking the initiative to get ahead of the curve to find a replacement tenant or tenants. It’s always helpful for an owner to get ahead of the offers out there,” he said.
Because the five buildings being leased by the charter school are arranged in a campus style and have Class A office and laboratory space, those properties could lend themselves to a company in the life sciences, technology or pharmaceutical fields. Those will be the primary targets of marketing efforts.
They could also accommodate light manufacturing.
Two of the structures are flex buildings, which attracted the school, and could easily be converted to multiple uses. Two of the buildings are connected by a glass walkway and have dedicated outdoor space.
If a large firm might be looking to transition to a new headquarters, for example, planning could take several years, so putting the properties on the market now makes sense.
As part of the agreement with PennCap, JLL and ALT are also handling leasing a property at 1605 Valley Parkway that is expected to be available next year. Its current single tenant has announced plans to move. The leasing agents are hoping to find a new tenant but it could also be leased to a variety of smaller tenants, based on demand.
The former charter school properties consist of 1550, 1560, 1640, 1650 and 1660 Valley Center Parkway.
All totaled, more than 277,000 square feet of Class A office and laboratory space is being marketed.
