1,200 Acres of a College Campus Environment Lures Franklin Square to the Navy Yard


Rendering of Franklin Square Capital Parnters' new building at the Navy Yard

Rendering of Franklin Square Capital Parnters’ new building at the Navy Yard courtesy the Navy Yard.

Today marks the groundbreaking of the four-story, 80,050 square foot Franklin Square Capital Partners office building in the 1,200-acre Navy Yard, which continues to draw new companies that appreciate its focus on energy efficiency as well as a campus that feels more college and less corporate. As with the 11 other projects initiated by Liberty Property Trust/Synterra Partners at the Yard, this one will also be sustainably developed, aiming for a LEED Gold certification.

Franklin Square, which Forbes named 13th most promising company in America this year, will get a DIGSAU-designed building with views of the Philly skyline. It’ll have a ground floor glass pedestal and then floor to ceiling windows. The lobby will have “hand-chiseled Jerusalem limestone and Venetian plaster.” Dig that, DIGSAU. Franklin Square moved from the Cira Centre to get more room and to change the vibe for its 150 employees — a number that’s likely to grow. New amenities for those staffers will include a health-oriented cafe and a fitness center.

The building will be in what used to be called the Navy Yard’s Corporate Center but is now, according to Robert A.M. Stern’s update of the Navy Yard Master Plan, the Central Green District. You know — green as in sustainable and green as in landscaped parks.