Cira Centre South

Redevelopment of the existing 862,000-sf US Postal Service building represents phase one of the project. Brandywine paid the university $28 million for the building and estimates its renovation will cost about $265 million. The postal service has signed three short-term leases for 220,000-sf portions of the building, which it will occupy during renovation through fourth-quarter 2008.

The US General Services Administration has signed a 20-year lease for the full building, beginning with completion of the renovation in 2010, where it will house 5,000 employees of the Internal Revenue Service. As part of this phase, Brandywine will also construct a 733,000-sf, 2,400-vehicle parking garage, at an estimated cost of $110 million. Half of it will be reserved for IRS employees.

Final plans and time line for the additional components of the project are "subject to market conditions," Jerry Sweeney, Brandywine's CEO, previously told GlobeSt.com. Preliminarily they call for two towers. One on the Walnut Street side may rise 50 stories and contain 500,000 sf of office space, a 225-room hotel and 50 residential condos. It is projected for completion in 2012, and the university has agreed to lease 100,000 sf of its office space for a 20-year term.