wfn.org | BOARD OF PENSIONS SIGNS NEW LEASE;

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

18-Aug-95

95285          BOARD OF PENSIONS SIGNS NEW LEASE;  
                    WILL MOVE IN OCTOBER 1996 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
PHILADELPHIA--The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Board of Pensions has 
signed a lease for new space in downtown Philadelphia and will be moving in 
October of 1996. 
 
     The board's new offices will be at 2000 Market Street in a 25-year-old 
building across the street from the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, less than 
a mile from its current offices at 1027 Arch Street.  The board has been in 
the Arch Street building since October of 1988. 
 
     The agreement, described by Board of Pensions President John Detterick 
as "a phenomenally good deal," is estimated to save the board $3 million in 
the next 10 years.  It includes no rent for the first two years of the 
lease -- the same amount of time remaining on the Arch Street lease. 
 
     "Rates [for office space] have been going down ever since we signed 
the Arch Street lease in 1988," said Detterick, "and so we began looking 
around last year when we could see the end of the Arch Street lease 
coming." 
 
     Senior vice president Frank Maloney said he likes everything about the 
new lease.  The new lease rate is $13.61 per square foot, compared with 
$17.91 on Arch Street.  The new space is on three floors, where on Arch 
Street the board was spread over seven floors ("with the slowest elevators 
in the world," Maloney added).  And the lease contains provisions for 
"giving back" surplus space as automation of services and computerization 
of records reduces the amount of space needed for the board's operations. 
Up to 85,000 square feet are available. 
 
     Maloney, who negotiated the new lease, said the board looked at 
relocating to Louisville. That option was fairly quickly ruled out, added 
Detterick, because many key employees of the board would not have moved, 
thus hampering a major reorganization the board has embarked upon in the 
last two years.   
 
     "We couldn't move (to another city) and implement our quality program 
both," said Detterick , "so we opted for the quality program." 
 
     Once the decision was made to remain in Philadelphia, the board had to 
decide where in Philadelphia to relocate -- and made an intentional 
commitment to the city center.  Detterick cited three factors in that 
decision:  
 
     * lease rates have already begun to rise in suburban areas 
 
     * transportation -- "a great majority of our employees use public 
transportation to get to work" 
 
     * the diversity of the urban work force -- "the church has an 
obligation to be where people need jobs." 
 
 

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For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Louisville, KY 40202
  phone 502-569-5504            fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

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