PhillyDeals: Developer's proposals aimed at attracting Millennial workforce

Bill Glazer, boss at Keystone Property Group, collects aging office buildings, mostly suburban.

He says his Bala Cynwyd-based firm now controls north of 10 million square feet, about seven times the size of the new tower Comcast wants to build at 18th and Arch Streets.

"It's a big job. But it's a fun job," Glazer told me Wednesday, two days after he agreed to pay $231 million for 12 buildings (2.3 million square feet) in the suburbs of New York.

Keystone last year paid $233 million for buildings totaling 1.6 million square feet in Westlakes Office Park in Berwyn, Sentry Park in Blue Bell, and other suburban sites, from the same seller, Mack-Cali Realty Corp., of Edison, N.J., whose bosses now believe there's more money to be made in apartments.

Glazer convinced some cold-eyed lenders, including Deutsche Bank, to back last year's deals - at prices less than half of what suburban buildings used to fetch, or a third of what new construction would cost.

Cheap for a reason, no? "The whole office sector has been a tough space over the past few years," Glazer acknowledged. U.S. employment hasn't yet recovered to 2007 levels.

So how's he going to turn these deals to profits? "By reinventing the workspace with technology, fitness, and lifestyle," Glazer says cheerfully.

What's that mean? He directed me to his proposal for 100 Independence Mall West, the old Rohm & Haas building, where he's asked restaurant owner Michael Schulson to "craft an outdoor beer garden," plus "a very cool cafe" aiming for the street ambience of the Standard Hotel in New York's Meatpacking District.

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PhillyDeals: Developer's proposals aimed at attracting Millennial workforce