It was a little over a month ago that we told you that plans were in the early stages for a 16-story building at the corner of 34th & Market as part of an expansion effort from University City Science Center, an effort which will also include the rebranding of its campus into UCity Square. As you might expect, there has been no progress in this short time at 34th & Market, but another UCity Square project has gotten moving just a couple blocks away. About two weeks ago, groundbreaking officially took place at 3675 Market St., an address that was previously home to a low rise building and a parking garage. With heavy equipment now on site, we'll soon see a 14-story building rise here.
Once complete, the building will have office space, lab space, coworking space, meeting space, and ground floor retail of some kind. According to a press release, the building is already 50% leased, with the Science Center and innovation hub CIC as anchor tenants. In addition, the entrepreneur clubhouse Quorum will expand into the new building. The leasing flyer indicates that floors 9-14 are still available, and we'd think that some of those offices will have some pretty solid views.
As we told you previously, UCity Square is a years-long master plan for this area which will ultimately mean a 1M sqft expansion of the Science Center. We look forward to seeing more buildings constructed here in the coming years, and more innovation coming out of the area as the Science Center continues to grow. The fact that this sort of thing promotes jobs and economic development in the region is incredibly important, especially when considering the number of new residential units that have been built in West Philadelphia and Center City over the last few years. All the people working here need somewhere to live, after all.