Jewish Federation Sells 2100 Arch St. Building, Reassesses Real Estate Strategy

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The former Jewish Community Services Building at 2100 Arch St. | Photo by Eric Schucht

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia has sold the Jewish Community Services Building at 2100 Arch St. as part of a strategic plan to assess its real estate ownership.

Philadelphia developer MM Partners bought the building for $12 million and has tentative plans to convert the building into “mixed-use” residential space. The Jewish Community Services Building was home to the Jewish Federation, the Jewish Exponent and other Jewish organizations.

“Owning a number of properties means that we have a number of other areas that we have to focus on — maintenance, building, the relationship of landlord to tenant — and all of those pieces ultimately can compromise our needing to focus on our core mission of enriching Jewish life,” Jewish Federation President and CEO Michael Balaban said.


According to Michael Markman, the president of BET Investments, a Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia board of directors member and head of the Jewish Federation’s real estate committee, the Jewish Federation will save about $500,000 annually in operating costs. The Jewish Federation will be able to incorporate that money into the budget, with $11 million going into the nonprofit’s endowment to be distributed to the Jewish organizations it supports.

Due to the pandemic and changing work culture, which supports more work-from-home opportunities, Jewish organizations were no longer effectively using the offices at 2100 Arch St., a 121,500-square-foot building. Increasingly, non-Jewish entities, including for-profit organizations, were renting space there.

“It put us in a position of being a landlord,” Balaban said. “So from that perspective, again, it’s not mission-focused.”

The Jewish Federation owns four other properties in the Greater Philadelphia area, including the Saligman, Mandell Education, Schwartz and Feinstein campuses in Wynnewood, Elkins Park, Bryn Mawr and Northeast Philadelphia, respectively, which they are considering selling.

“Being in the real estate business just wasn’t the most efficient use of our capital,” Markman said.

The Jewish Federation is speaking with its Jewish tenants of their campuses to assess what space is needed. While some smaller organizations may no longer need office space, larger entities, such as the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy on the Schwartz campus, may need the space. The Jewish Federation wants those larger groups to buy their respective spaces within a campus.

“We are talking to them, we’re being sensitive to their needs and we’re trying to determine what can be sold or leased,” Markman said. 

The Jewish Federation moved to a 23,000-square-foot office at 20th and Market streets, where the organization operates on one level, instead of multiple stories. The more centralized layout of the office is more cost-efficient and conducive to working collaboratively.

“It was beautiful, it increased morale and it allowed the organization to operate in an efficient manner,” Markman said.

The Jewish Exponent offices relocated to Gratz College in Melrose Park in July.

MM Partners is primarily an adaptive reuse company, taking older buildings and repurposing them for new uses. The building at 2100 Arch St. is well-maintained and is adjacent to other residential buildings and newer office developments, making it a good candidate for a residential space, according to David Waxman, the founder and managing partner at MM Partners.

MM Partners owns about 1,000 units in the city, about 120 per building, in the Brewerytown, Francisville and University City neighborhoods.

Balaban previously employed his philosophy of reducing the nonprofit’s property portfolio during his time as president of the Jewish Federation of Broward County in South Florida. The Jewish Federation owned six Federation Housing buildings, which housed low-income individuals, including many refugees from the former Soviet Union.

As the years passed, many of the Jewish refugees died or moved out of Federation Housing. At one point, of the 155 apartment units, only four were occupied by Jewish tenants. The Jewish Federation sold the buildings to a nonprofit that specialized in the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program.

“The tenant didn’t see any real change. Actually, there were upgrades that were made as part of the arrangement with the sale,” Balaban said. “From a tenant standpoint, it moved from one owner to another owner. But from a Federation revenue standpoint: $54 million in unrestricted new assets.”

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