Burlington Stores is leaving the state where it was born, announcing plans to plant a $370 million headquarters in West Philadelphia after more than five decades in South Jersey. The off-price retailer, founded in Burlington County in 1972, will anchor its new corporate home at a 14-story tower along the 3100 block of Market Street, inside Brandywine Realty Trust's sprawling Schuylkill Yards development.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro joined Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Burlington executives at a University City event to announce the deal, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. The building itself, a 472,000-square-foot office and life sciences tower completed by Brandywine, sits inside University City's innovation district, as reported by WHYY. It's also just steps from William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, a detail Brandywine highlights on its property listing for 3151 Market Street.
Jobs, Incentives and a Split Loyalty
Burlington plans to create at least 2,000 jobs in Philadelphia over the next five years, a mix the company says reflects both migration of existing staff and new growth. Before the announcement, Burlington maintained roughly 4,700 corporate campus and warehouse employees in Burlington County alongside another 2,100 store employees across the greater Philadelphia region, per the same WHYY account. The company currently counts about 8,000 associates in New Jersey overall, and plans to transition only a portion of them to the new Philadelphia headquarters.
Burlington CEO Michael O'Sullivan said the company had outgrown its former New Jersey headquarters and will now call Philadelphia home in the years ahead. Company officials were careful to stress that New Jersey isn't being abandoned: Burlington says it remains committed to the state, pointing to its Edgewater Park distribution center and a recently opened Logan facility, and notes it continues to open stores there even as its executive functions shift east across the Delaware River.
Where the Public Money Is Going
The deal leans on a stack of state and city incentives totaling $37 million. Pennsylvania is contributing $30 million, split between a $20 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant and a $10 million Pennsylvania First grant, according to WHYY's reporting. The city of Philadelphia is adding a $7 million forgivable loan along with a Job Creation Tax Credit worth 2% of annual wages or $5,000 per new job created, up to program limits.
Regional transit is part of the pitch too. SEPTA and the Philadelphia Parking Authority both plan to offer discounted commuter savings packages for Burlington employees transitioning into or newly hired at the headquarters, a detail confirmed by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Given the tower's proximity to 30th Street Station, that arrangement is meant to smooth the commute for workers still living across the river.
A Rare Fortune 500 Win for the City
Shapiro called the move a major win, saying Pennsylvania is competing to win and delivering results for both Philadelphia and the commonwealth. Parker echoed that framing, saying the announcement proves Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are open for business. The relocation makes Burlington only the third Fortune 500 company headquartered within Philadelphia's city limits, joining Comcast and Aramark, out of 20 Fortune 500 firms based somewhere in Pennsylvania, per WHYY's reporting.
State officials described it as the largest headquarters relocation to Philadelphia in years. Governor Shapiro's administration has reported securing more than $43 billion in private-sector investment and nearly 27,000 jobs statewide since he took office in January 2023, and this deal now folds into that broader tally, according to the Pennsylvania Governor's Office.
Fitting Into Burlington's Growth Push
The headquarters move comes as Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, keeps expanding aggressively at the store level. The company says it's a fast-growing Fortune 500 retailer and plans to open 115 new stores and hire about 5,000 new employees nationwide before the end of the year. As of last month, Burlington operated 1,300 stores across 47 states, increasingly favoring a smaller roughly 20,000-square-foot format that's about a third the size of its traditional stores, the Inquirer reports.
Hoodline has tracked that expansion locally, chasing off-price leases in Bala Cynwyd earlier this year and noting Burlington's anchor role at a former Amazon Fresh site in Northeast Philadelphia.
A Boost for Schuylkill Yards
The headquarters deal is also a significant win for Brandywine's $3.5 billion Schuylkill Yards project, a 14-acre, 20-year master-planned development built in partnership with Drexel University that aims to link Center City's commercial core with University City's academic and medical institutions. Burlington isn't the first major tenant to bet on the site: financial services firm FS Investments chose Schuylkill Yards for its global headquarters in February 2025, occupying space in Brandywine's West Tower and citing transit connectivity to New York and Connecticut as a factor in its decision.
Hoodline has previously reported on the financial pressures facing Brandywine's other University City towers and on Penn and Drexel pumping the brakes on the broader building boom nearby, making Burlington's commitment a notable counterpoint. Company officials said the investment reflects hundreds of millions of dollars committed to Pennsylvania's economy as Burlington's headquarters footprint fully transitions to Philadelphia in the years ahead.
