The largest of the vulnerable properties are a 450,000-sf building at 11601 Roosevelt Blvd., and a 250,000-sf one at 11501 Roosevelt Blvd. Four others are adjacent properties spanning from 11620 to 11631 along Caroline Road. They range in size from 70,000 sf to 50,000 sf. The seventh building aggregates 46,000 sf at 9815 Blue Grass Road.

The buildings date back to the 1960s and "most of them were originally warehouses that have been modified and enhanced over the years for use by the IRS," the spokesperson says. They are owned by different private entities. The specific leases and the aggregate amount of space that will not be renewed are yet to be determined. IRS administrative jobs unrelated to paper processing will remain in Philadelphia, but require less than half the current space and will not necessarily remain in the buildings already leased here by the government agency.

The timing of all components of the IRS transition here has not yet been determined, says the GSA spokesperson. However, an IRS spokesman in the local office tells GlobeSt.com that the IRS paper processing operation will conclude here in September 2007.

Under the restructuring, Philadelphia's is the largest of 10 such centers being closed. Paper processing operations in Memphis, TN and Long Island, NY have already been shut down, and others in Andover, MA and Atlanta will follow in 2009 and 2011, respectively, the spokesperson says.

According to the IRS, approximately 74.2 million, or more than half of all total US tax returns for 2005 were filed electronically. "Pennsylvanians lagged the national average until 2005," the IRS spokesperson says, "when the state's electronic returns passed the halfway mark at 53%."

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