Redevelopment of a 69,000 sq. ft. historic, three-story vacant former candy manufacturing building in the Bridesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA.The anchor tenant, El Concilio, will focus on providing critical human services programming such as foster care, adoption services, and youth development in 47,000 square feet.These services will be focused on the surrounding community.A lease for a 9,500 square foot, 120-space child-care facility was signed post-closing.There is an additional 9,200 sq. ft. for other tenants.

The Main Building of the Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Factory was designed by the Ballinger Company of Philadelphia.The Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Factory exemplifies The Ballinger Company’s approach to factory design during the 1920s.With the vertical emphasis of the piers, which terminate above the parapet with stylized Art Deco capitals in terra cotta, and the soaring water tower at the center of the James Street side, the building clearly conveys a modern industrial spirit.The tower, in particular, while it did serve a useful function in housing the water tank, could also have had the purpose of inspiring pride in the company’s workers.In this way, and because the building became a symbol of the company, which often used images of it in advertising and sometimes on product packaging, Ballinger’s design became more than simply an enclosure for manufacturing activity.

The Blumenthal Brother Chocolate Factory will be adaptive reused into a 67,026 sq. ft. community facility, 47,545 sq. ft. of which will be leased to Concilio de Organizaciones Hispanas Concilio, an organization that provides social, educational, cultural, prevention, and intervention services. The Philadelphia Department of Human Services recently designated Concilio as the CUAs are part of a citywide initiative known as Improving Outcomes for Children.Working directly with the police, they focus on permanency, wellbeing, and safety of children and families, providing home stabilization and other ongoing services to ensure children are taken care of.In addition to the programming for the CUA3 program, Concilio anticipates subleasing 10k sq. ft. of its space to The Madden School, a child care education and development center.The remaining 19k sq. ft. of space is anticipated to be leased to one or more nonprofit or civic-focused tenants providing services to the local community.