State workers to move to Strawbridge building

Three floors of the historic Strawbridge & Clothier building in Center City, vacant since the once-vaunted department store shut its doors two years ago, are becoming the new home of 750 state workers, under a deal to be announced today. The lease, signed last week by the state Department of General Services with Philadelphia retail developer Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, means workers will move out of the State Office Building at Broad and Spring Garden Streets next summer to make room for a condominium redevelopment there.

The 750 state employees moving to Strawbridge's at Eighth and Market Streets represent three-quarters of the workforce at Spring Garden. The other workers are moving to offices at Eighth and Arch Streets later this year, said General Services Department spokesman Edward Myslewicz. PREIT, which also owns The Gallery shopping mall next to Strawbridge's, has agreed to renovate the 224,000 square feet of onetime ...