Parente, which also had offices at 1818 JFK Blvd., began occupying a 50,000-sf space on two floors at One Liberty last week. A spokeswoman for Parente tells GlobeSt.com the Parente and Curtis occupancies constitute a single lease, rather than separate transactions for Parente and its subsidiary. Kathie Carr and Mitch Marcus of CB Richard Ellis' Philadelphia office negotiated for Parente, while the building's owners, Philadelphia Liberty Property LP, were represented by a Cushman & Wakefield of PA team. The lease took effect on June 1, says the Parente spokeswoman.

Parente's new neighbors at One Liberty include Cigna Corp., which is headquartered there, and Smith Barney, a tenant since the 945-foot tower opened in 1987. Founded in Wilkes-Barre, PA in 1970, Parente has been headquartered in Philadelphia since 2004. It added 34 employees in 2006 and 50 more in 2007. Currently, Parente has more than 500 employees and operates offices throughout Pennsylvania as well as in Cherry Hill, NJ and Dallas, according to the company's website.

According to a release, amenities in the newly designed space include an intercommunicating stair with open risers, MechoShade motorized dual shades providing blackout for AV presentations and pre-programmed sun screening, a BIO-key fingerprint biometrics security system and vetted work stations with an ergonomic "cockpit" design. Parente has also designed the new space with green principles in mind, and has reused 100% of the existing wood millwork, set aside fewer file rooms as the firm works towards a paperless office, incorporated fingerprint entry to eliminate keys or cards, replaced dark smoked glass with clear frosted glass to bring in natural light and installed timers for lighting to conserve energy whenever possible, according to the release.