The tower will have a total of 830,000 rentable square feet: 575,000 square feet of Class A office, 10,000 square feet of retail, and 260 luxury rental apartment suites with concierge services.

The lease with FMC brings the office part of the development to a point of being 61% committed to major tenants with long-term leases. Brandywine previously signed a 20-year lease with the University of Pennsylvania for 100,000 square feet on four floors of the tower, which is situated at the gateway to the University City neighborhood. The University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and the University City Science Center are all nearby.

The FMC Tower will rise adjacent to Penn Park, the university's greenscape redevelopment. Penn's president Amy Gutman said the tower project dovetails perfectly with the university's effort to spur economic development along the banks of the Schuylkill, from Cira Centre to Penn's South Bank at the former DuPont Marshall Lab site.

“The FMC Tower at Cira CentreSouth also will further link Penn, the city's largest private employer, to downtown Philadelphia," Gutman said.

FMC's president, CEO and chairman Pierre Brondeau said his company is acting on its long-term commitment to Philadelphia with the lease-signing – and also a commitment to providing an office environment that “encourages employee collaboration, engagement and creativity.”

“As one of the fastest growing specialty chemical companies, our ability to retain and attract the best talent is critical to our success,” said Brondeau.

"Make no mistake, global companies like FMC have the opportunity to expand anywhere in the world and FMC chose to grow here," Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said. He said the lease-signing served as a sign of recognition that Pennsylvania's economy is starting to rev' according to plan.