Burlington's $370 Million Headquarters Deal Filled a Tower That Sat 96% Empty

Burlington is paying $240 million, $544 a square foot, for 3151 Market Street at Schuylkill Yards. Brandywine Realty Trust finished the 441,000 square foot, 14 story tower in 2024 and it sat 96% vacant ever since. One tenant just erased that vacancy in a single transaction. Add the $130 million Burlington plans to spend building out the space and the total lands at $370 million, backed by close to $40 million in state and city incentives: $30 million from Pennsylvania, a $20 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant plus a $10 million Pennsylvania First grant, and the rest from Philadelphia's $7 million forgivable loan, a job creation tax credit and discounted SEPTA passes.

The 2,000 jobs number running in every headline needs a second look. 1,500 of those are Burlington employees who already work in Burlington, New Jersey today and are simply moving with the company. Only 500 are new hires, phased in over the next five years. The relocation itself doesn't start until late 2028 or early 2029, two to three years out. New Jersey's business lobby is framing the loss as proof of a tax exodus, and Pennsylvania's corporate rate of 7.49%, heading to 4.99% by 2031, against New Jersey's 11.5% gives that framing some real weight. But the deal signed this week is about absorbing 441,000 empty square feet.

For anyone leasing retail near University City, the number that matters is 1,500 to 2,000 workers landing at 30th and Market by 2029, five days a week, needing lunch, coffee and a happy hour spot. That demand doesn't show up overnight, and it won't show up in this week's headlines either. Baltimore Avenue and the Market Street corridor around Drexel have two to three years to get positioned before those workers actually start ordering lunch.