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Expanding in Philadelphia

By on Sep 3, 2013 in People

Though Philadelphia is a major city, on the whole, many apartment developers haven’t sought out to construct new buildings in the area. However, Yardi client LCOR, a real estate development, management and investment company, is looking to expand their pipeline in the area, which they consider to have unique attributes.

“I think this is an important time in Philadelphia real estate. There’s a lot of activity, but it’s a market that has seen moderate but steady growth over the years,” Donald Tracy, vice president, LCOR, says.

According to Tracy, a reason that the market in Philadelphia is growing is because the population of young professionals is growing.  Don Tracy

“So many of the college students that come here for their education stay here,” he says. “There’s an opportunity to provide quality housing for that group in an institutionally financed way that perhaps was a slow process in the past few years, but has grown over the last two years. There is a significant pipeline in the next few years that will continue to grow.”

Though LCOR sees a lot of advantages in developing in Philadelphia, they are aware of some challenges.

“I think there is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 units in the pipeline to be delivered over the next several years, and while there’s fairly robust demand for that pipeline, you have to be careful to deliver the right product in extraordinary locations and create a product that meets demand,” Tracy says. “The other component of it is that when the economy gets better, the demographics get better and there’s more of a shift towards development in the region, I think there’s a fairly direct correlation in construction pricing. I think we need to continue to monitor that very closely to make sure the opportunities are affordable to execute.”

Read the entire interview with Donald Tracy of LCOR here:  http://www.multihousingnews.com/features/mhn-interview-philadelphia-freedom-an-interesting-opportunity-for-multifamily/1004088944.html