PhilaPort is leaving its longtime offices along North Delaware Avenue for a new home at the Navy Yard, after its board unanimously approved a $22.6 million deal to buy two South Broad Street properties. The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority board signed off on acquiring 5101 S. Broad St. and 5115R S. Broad St., a 150,000-square-foot complex that includes three existing commercial buildings and more than five acres of riverfront property along the Delaware River.
The purchase, first reported by PHILADELPHIA.Today, shifts PhilaPort's administrative staff away from Port Richmond and directly into the heart of the port authority's operational footprint. The Navy Yard site sits next door to the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and Mustin Yard, the 152-acre former naval air facility and rail yard that PhilaPort bought from Norfolk Southern Corporation last October for $90 million in state funds, according to Trains Magazine. PhilaPort Chairman Michael Pearson said the Navy Yard location south of the Walt Whitman Bridge is an epicenter of economic development for the commonwealth, adding simply that “the Navy Yard is where the action is.”
A Campus Built Around Existing Rail and Marine Assets
PhilaPort plans to consolidate its operations into one maritime hub, building a new headquarters and broader campus on the acquired property rather than simply moving desks. Executive Director and CEO Richard Lazer said the space will let PhilaPort “expand its reach, attract new business, and create more good-paying jobs.” Lazer took over the agency in June, succeeding longtime chief executive Jeff Theobald after the board selected him in April following his tenure leading the Philadelphia Parking Authority, per the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The 5101 S. Broad St. property carries its own history. It was owned by Delaware-based 5101 South Broad Street Associates L.P., controlled by the family of the late logistics executive Dennis J. Colgan Jr., who bought the site from PIDC for $300,000 in 2003 and invested $10 million to restore it, the Inquirer reports. Colgan previously ran local freight forwarder Barthco before selling the firm in 2006 for $75 million while retaining ownership of the building. A 1909 structure on the site, originally built as a naval submarine periscope factory, is currently leased to tenants including Geodis USA and Q.E.D. Systems through 2028 and 2029, generating $1.8 million in annual rental income that will help offset PhilaPort's holding costs while it plans its new campus layout.
Financing the Deal
To close the $22.6 million purchase, PhilaPort's board authorized staff to secure an $18 million loan from First Trust Bank, with 25-year financing options carrying interest rates between 5.90% and 6.50%. Monthly debt service on that loan is projected to run between roughly $115,000 and $121,000, according to board documents cited by the Inquirer.
The relocation lands during a stretch of record performance for the port authority. PhilaPort set an all-time annual container volume record in 2025, moving 889,268 twenty-foot equivalent units, a 6% increase over 2024, with 64% of container imports consisting of refrigerated produce and meat. In June, the port was named the most productive container port in North America for the third consecutive year by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence Container Port Performance Index, which evaluates vessel turnaround times and crane productivity across 403 international container ports.
Part of a Larger Waterfront Expansion
The headquarters move fits into PhilaPort's Destination 2040 plan, a 15-year, $2 billion strategy unveiled in October 2024 to expand container handling capacity to nearly 1.6 million units and keep pace with regional rivals in Baltimore and Wilmington. Container cargo operations through PhilaPort generated nearly $1.2 billion in total economic output in 2025, supporting more than 8,000 direct and indirect jobs and producing $905 million in labor income across Pennsylvania.
The Navy Yard has become a magnet for major investment beyond PhilaPort's own expansion. Hoodline previously reported on JPMorgan's $24 million investment in the district's shipyard boom and the $87 million sale of the former Tastykake headquarters nearby. PhilaPort has also been testing electric pilot boats and yard trucks across its terminals and pushing forward with a $300 million cruise terminal project along the Delaware River, both signs of the broader buildout accompanying the port authority's move south.
