Penn reacquires property

the University repurchased the Hojoka building at 3025 Walnut Street last week. and Eric Tucker The University last week reacquired the Hojoka building, a 36,000 square-foot property located at 3025 Walnut Street, from the gene-therapy company Genovo for $1.425 million. The purchase of the building, owned by Penn until fall 1996, will serve to further Penn's goal of eastern expansion and officials speculate that the property will become an asset to the University upon the fall 2000 opening of the neighboring General Electric building. Penn had initially sold the building to Genovo -- co-founded by Penn Molecular and Cellular Engineering Professor James Wilson in 1992 -- in the fall of 1996 for $1.45 million, with the hopes that it could supply job opportunities and provide greater scientific research opportunities on campus. Upon purchasing the building several years ago, Genovo officials announced their expectation to create nearly 200 jobs. But the building had since remained vacant, as Genovo quickly found an additional facility in nearby Sharon Hill that ultimately served as its primary headquarters, according to Genovo officials. "We just didn't need two pieces of real estate," said Genovo chief executive officer Eric Aguiar, adding that the "short term need for a second facility" did not warrant the use of the Hojoka building. When Penn sold the facility, it did so with an added stipulation that it could match any external bid placed on the building if and when the company decided to sell Hojoka. Two offers were placed -- though neither the University nor the company could reveal from whom -- and Penn ultimately matched the bid, earning rights to the building once again. "We saw from day one? that if for some reason Genovo was going to leave and move on to bigger headquarters, we would want the opportunity to take the building back," Penn Executive Vice President John Fry said Monday. Although Fry acknowledged that the University was pleased to once again have control of the facility -- especially given its location -- he expressed disappointment that the actual venture did not succeed in the Hojoka building. According to University officials, the company experienced financial difficulties that led to the abandonment of the project in the Hojoka building. "They basically stopped the project and just sort of sat there," Fry said. But Aguiar denied any claims that the company experienced economic trouble. Wilson, who still oversees the research, said the company did not want to reject the "long-term lease and the "very good rate" that the Sharon Hill site offered and therefore intentionally chose not to operate out of the Hojoka building. Located next to the GE building -- the site of a new University-owned luxury apartment building scheduled to open in fall 2000 -- the Hojoka building purchase comes almost on the heels of a University proposal released earlier this month to build new residential, parking and academic facilities in a parking lot at 34th and Chestnut streets. Although University officials say they do not yet have specific plans for the Hojoka site, they believe the property will become a valuable commodity when the 285-unit GE building opens its doors. "The GE there really gives that whole area sort of a new lease on life," Fry said.