Philadelphia

[Willie Morales]

Hello BP,

Is there anyone in BP who is in the Philadelphia area that invests there on a buy and hold basis? Would love to talk with you, And maybe get a pointer or two,and hopefully I can do the same for you.

Thank you very much.

[Gregory H.]

@Darren Sager Philly may not be a heavy hitter in the tech field, but there will be other industries that exist over the long term ... Two of Philly's largest industries are education & medicine, both I believe would qualify as long term & stable industries. Penn & Drexel are expanding to the point that they're enveloping a large swaths of West Philly. You have Comcast building their second tower in Center City which is a specific tech & innovation focus. The Walnut Street shopping district as one of the fastest growing retail corridors in the country on a YoY rental growth rate basis.

 I was at RealShares Philadelphia last month, and there were major institutional players who were very interested in Philly from a combination of population growth, job growth & affordability basis. Many of them were no longer interested in making new investments in DC, NYC & Boston because the cap rates are becoming oppressively low in those markets.

Philly has a few major issues it needs to address like tax structure, unions & the school system, but it is by no means a dying city. I only have one investment in the city itself currently that was purchased back in 2012, but it has appreciated 30% since then ... and that is in Center City which hasn't grown at nearly the rate of the neighborhoods surrounding it.