Please enjoy this week’s edition of Capstone Law’s Philadelphia Real Estate Trends:

• After much speculation, PREIT finally secured North Jersey-based Century 21 Department Stores as its anchor tenant for the former Strawbridge & Clothier flagship store at 8^th and Market Streets in Center City.  Century 21 is a discount designer clothing store virtually worshipped in the New York City area.  Although Century 21 is not the Bloomingdale’s or the Nordstrom that many originally ticketed for this space, its arrival should open the floodgates and enable PREIT to secure other exciting retail options for the centrally-located but long downtrodden section of the city. For example, Century 21’s arrival helped transform the once virtually vacant Bergen Mall in Paramus, New Jersey into a regional destination.

• The S3 Group — the Dublin, Ireland-based provider of video platforms — announced plans to open its first East Coast office at 1800 John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Center City- right across from the Comcast Center.  The S3 Group counts Comcast as one of its major customers and opened its new office in Philadelphia in an effort to strengthen its synergies with Philadelphia’s highest profile locally headquartered company.  As Comcast continues its expansion in Philadelphia, more groups like the S3 Group may move their operations to Philadelphia for similar reasons and spur the growth of the the city’s office sector.