A deal is said to be close for the station owner Entercom to leave Bala Cynwyd for the Schuylkill waterfront.
By Bob Fernandez STAFF WRITER – Philadelphia Inquirer 3/15/2018
Entercom Communications Corp., the nation’s No. 2 radio station group owner, plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from suburban Bala Cynwyd to a refurbished and modernized industrial building on the Schuylkill waterfront, according to multiple sources in radio and real estate.
The company is expected to take space at the new Aramark headquarters at 2400 Market St. Aramark announced in 2016 its plans to relocate there from 1101 Market.
Entercom is expected to take a floor in the office building, or about 60,000 square feet, sources say. They describe the lease signing as close but not completed. They did not want to be identified, for business reasons. Entercom spokeswoman Esther-Mireya Tejeda declined to comment.
If Entercom makes the move into Philadelphia, the city will be the headquarters for the nation’s second-largest radio group and the nation’s largest cable-TV and residential-internet provider, Comcast Corp.
Entercom now leases 14,000 square feet in Bala Cynwyd, according to private industry data. The company also operates six former CBS Radio stations in Philadelphia: KYW, WPHT-AM, WXTU, WOGL-FM, WTDY-FM (Today’s 96.5), and WIP-FM. It was unclear whether the six stations would locate to 2400 Market.
Entercom closed on its deal to merge with CBS Radio in November,
vastly expanding its national radio reach to more than 100 million listeners. The company has been consolidating CBS Radio operations around the country, even selling a parcel of land in Chicago for $46 million. It has changed station formats at former CBS Radio stations to boost ratings and replaced general mangers in many of its radio clusters.
Entercom and other companies based their operations in Bala Cynwyd over the years to avoid the city wage tax. Entercom has been located at 401 E. City Ave., Bala Cynwyd. But in recent years there has been some migration by companies with suburban operations back into the city to tap into the region’s younger labor pool and the urban vibe.
Comcast will relocate the NBC10 and Telemundo 62 studios on Monument Road in Bala Cynwyd to its new tower under construction near the Comcast Center in Center City.
Aramark spokeswoman Karen Cutler said that its 1,200 employees are expected to relocate to the Schuylkill waterfront later this year. The building will be topped with the Aramark logo. Aramark is expected to occupy about 300,000 square feet on the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth floors of the building, which has unusually large floors.
Aramark announced in September 2016 that it would relocate to the 1920s Hudson Car Co. building. Gov. Wolf and Mayor Kenney participated in the news conference announcing Aramark’s cross-town relocation. Aramark was enticed with $20.5 million in state incentives to stay in Philadelphia, according to published reports.
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