Brandywine Town Center losing office tenant

The lease expires this month, Trepp reports.

Trepp reported that Access Group, a private non-profit student lender, occupied about 46 percent of a 165,575 block of space at the town center. The town center was sold several years ago to Acadia, an  investment group that recently bought the Eden Square Shopping Center in Bear.

The center has a $26.25  million  loan, which is current, according to Trepp.

Access did not respond to an e-mail request for information on their plans.

The company website lists a corporate headquarters in West Chester, PA and an office in Washington, D.C.

The Brandywine Town Center, developed at the site of the Brandywine horse race track, was envisioned by the Rollins family as the home of a regional shopping center.

Plans for that center became mired in controversy with civic associations in the area.

While the project was approved, the center never lived up to the original vision and instead became the home of big box stores like Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Bob’s Furniture  and Lowe’s,  as well as a Regal Cinema.

Other stores include   Christmas Tree Shop, Red Robin, and Halloween City.  Fashion department stores, such as Boscov’s and Macy’s  stayed at nearby Concord Mall and Nordstrom, years later, opened in Christiana Mall.

Several years after Brandywine was completed  new shopping centers moved to  a “lifestyle” center approach with  offices and larger stores built in more of a Main Street setting.

Due to that changing market, a  portion of the mall has been used for many years  as office space when the regional mall did not materialize.

The property is being marketed by DSM Commercial, Newark at a rental rate  of $18 a square foot per year.