Downtown skyscraper to get luxe makeover
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
One Oxford Centre in Downtown is set for a revamp. Photo: Chrissy Suttles/Axios
A signature piece of Downtown's skyline is about to get a fresh look.
Why it matters: New owners of the 45-story One Oxford Centre tower on Grant Street — Downtown's third-largest office building — want to restore its status as a "premier business address" after pandemic-era workforce shifts slashed office occupancy rates in the city's core.
Driving the news: Aaron Stauber, president of New Jersey-based Rugby Realty, and a team of local investors won a $56 million bid for an outstanding loan on the skyscraper after previous owners, San Francisco-based firm Shorenstein, struggled to navigate the post-pandemic real estate market.
- Shorenstein purchased the tower for $148 million in 2016.
Zoom in: The tower, built in the 1980s, has seen occupancy rates dip to 65% in recent years, which Stauber expects to grow in the next two years. Its catalog of corporate tenants includes PWC, TriState Capital Bank and CBRE.
- It features more than 1 million square feet of office and retail space, including the 73,000-square-foot Rivers Club.
State of play: Rugby's team plans to renovate the tower's five-story lobby to help attract and retain tenants with "a striking, four-story commissioned chandelier suspended above a sleek, upscale central bar," the firm said. The team plans to redevelop over 18 months.
- A soundproof music studio with karaoke will "offer a space to unwind and create."
- "By day, it will serve as a sophisticated gathering place; by night, as the lights dim, it will transform into a dynamic social hub, with live entertainment and an atmosphere that extends far beyond traditional office life," says Stauber.
The big picture: The purchase adds to Stauber's Downtown portfolio, which includes the Gulf Tower, Koppers Building, Frick Building and 10 other properties.
- Rugby is also spearheading two key projects in the city and state's $600 million Downtown redevelopment effort, including the $230 million conversion of the Gulf Tower into a luxury hotel and apartment building.
- Stauber's Downtown investment started in the early '90s with restoration of the Gimbels building, now Heinz 57 Center, at Sixth and Smithfield.