Historic Philly Office Set to Be Auctioned Next Month

The famed Wanamaker building in Center City is weeks away from an auction, which TF Cornerstone appears poised to win.

The property at 1300 Market Street was approved this month for a sheriff’s sale, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. The auction, which is being hosted online by Bid4Assets, is scheduled to take place on June 3.

There’s no minimum bid required for the auction, but a $5,000 deposit is required from interested parties by May 27.

The office portion of the 115-year-old property has been subject to foreclosure since August 2023. Rubenstein Partners’ property entered into receivership the following month. Occupancy at the office building stands at a mere 21 percent.

Last summer, New York-based TF Cornerstone entered the picture, purchasing a majority of the debt backing the property for an undisclosed sum. Then, Tom Elghanayan’s firm moved quickly to foreclose.

The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruled TF Cornerstone’s credit towards the auction would be $120 million, the debt Rubenstein owes on the property. That means any rival bidders would have to outbid TF Cornerstone by $120 million to have a shot at securing the property — not impossible, but hardly likely, either.

To that end, TF Cornerstone has already been plotting next steps for the property. It appears to be lining up a residential conversion of the 954,000-square-foot site, though that won’t be easy considering the large floorplates and the presence of a tenant occupying 44,000 square feet on the ninth floor.

Last year, TF Cornerstone announced a $1 billion joint venture with Dune Real Estate Partners to advance office-to-resi conversions across the country.

Rubenstein purchased the Wanamaker property for $200 million in 2017. It sold the retail portion of the site — occupied by a Macy’s department store — to TF Cornerstone for $40 million in 2019.

— Holden Walter-Warner