Brandywine Realty Trust, Radnor, put out a statement last night confirming it has joined Georgia-based Campus Crest Communities to build a high-rise student tower at 2930 Chestnut St. on ground leased from the University of Pennsylvania.
The joint venture - 40% owned by investor Harrison Street Real Estate, the rest split by Brandywine and Campus Crest - will rise 33 stories (the site is permitted for 36), sleep 850 students (not counting guests), and cost $158.5 million (with $97.8 million lent by banks led by administrator PNC and syndicator Capital One).
Brandywine expects Drexel students as well as Penn students will live in the tower, dubbed The Grove at Cira Center South (Cira North is the office building by 30th St. Station). The building would draw students toward the campus neighborhood and away from the West Philly and Center City housing where they've been proliferating for decades.