A rare opportunity has surfaced for investors eyeing one of the Main Line’s tightest commercial corridors, writes Paul Schwedelson for The Philadelphia Business Journal.
A collection of mixed-use buildings along Bryn Mawr’s Lancaster Avenue has officially hit the market. Brokers say the scarcity alone could drive serious interest.
The Properties
Philadelphia-based Rubin Management is marketing two addresses, 834-40 W. Lancaster Avenue and 860-62 W. Lancaster Avenue, as a combined portfolio.
Together, the buildings span roughly 25,700 square feet of retail, medical, professional office, and residential space. Current tenants include Carina Sorella, The Buttery, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, and TCO Fly Shop.
That tenant mix reflects Bryn Mawr’s dual identity as an affluent residential enclave and a walkable shopping destination.
Why the Price Tag
CBRE’s Chris Munley is handling the listing. He said the portfolio could fetch around $12 million, or about $466 per square foot.
He pointed to the limited number of Lancaster Avenue properties that come to market as a key driver of that valuation. For context, that price is well above what nearby Lancaster Avenue real estate has recently fetched.
The former Bryn Mawr Trust headquarters at 801 W. Lancaster Avenue, a separate property not part of this listing, sold earlier this year for $7.6 million on roughly 46,000 square feet, or about $165 per square foot.
That property is owned by investor Michael Karp, who bought it from WSFS Financial Corp. and plans to convert the space into a financial literacy center.
The gap between the two price points underscores the premium investors are willing to pay for occupied, income-producing retail and restaurant space along the corridor, compared with a vacant former bank building being repositioned for nonprofit use.
A Magnet for University-Adjacent Investors
The Rubin Management portfolio’s location, about a quarter-mile from the Bryn Mawr SEPTA station and roughly a mile from Villanova University, has already drawn interest from investment groups that specialize in university-oriented real estate.
That category of buyer has a real and active presence in the region. Villanova’s own Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate runs a student-managed investment fund that evaluates and co-invests in commercial properties. This includes retail and mixed-use assets, often in partnership with Villanova alumni and affiliated real estate firms.
The presence of such institutional- and alumni-driven investment activity near campus is part of what makes properties close to Villanova attractive to a specific, recurring class of buyers.
The Numbers Behind the Deal
Rubin Management bought the properties for a combined $5.4 million in 2015 and 2016, according to Montgomery County tax records.
The company is now looking to redeploy that capital into another project.
Part of a Bigger Pattern on Lancaster Avenue
This listing lands amid a broader wave of investment activity along the corridor, though it’s worth distinguishing between the players involved.
Rubin Management is the seller in this transaction, looking to exit its 2015 and 2016 acquisitions. The Bryn Mawr Trust building, by contrast, already changed hands earlier this year. It is now owned by Karp, who is the one driving its conversion into a financial literacy center.
Separately, restaurateur Alessandro Fiorello is preparing to open a new bar-forward concept, Alessandro’s Enoteca, on Lancaster Avenue.
Together, the three situations point to a corridor where ownership keeps turning over and demand keeps outpacing the limited inventory, exactly the dynamic Munley is counting on to drive bidding for the Rubin Management portfolio.
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