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Aramark is not selling its Philadelphia HQ

    by Joseph N. DiStefano
    Published 

Plans to sell

» READ MORE: Aramark Corp.

’s Market Street headquarters have been put on ice.

"The credit markets aren't there. We can’t get the returns we want, so we're going to hold that building," says Joseph S. Martz, executive director of the Philadelphia Board of City Trusts, the tower's owner, whose $1 billion investment portfolio funds

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,

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and dozens of smaller charities.

Last fall, a report by the trusts' real estate consultant,

» READ MORE: NorthMarq Capital Advisers

, urged directors to consider selling the Aramark tower. By investing sale proceeds “at a conservative 8 percent return,” the board could “more than double” what the board would get if it spent a projected $11 million fixing the building’s exterior and common areas.

But what worked last fall won’t work now, said Martz. "The market changed that quickly."