Real estate firm buys Camden office building

Camden's L3 Communications building on Market Street, long seen as housing some of the city's best office space, was sold this week to a major South Jersey real estate firm for $35 million.

The 575,000-square-foot property was owned by the state Economic Development Authority, which last year reached a sales agreement with the city's Cooper's Ferry Partnership. This week, the Cherry Hill-based Needleman Management company, along with a group of investors, purchased that agreement, company president Howard Needleman said.

It's the company's first step into Camden, and one that Needleman said was influenced by the recent influx of high-profile companies into the city.

"The recent activity in downtown Camden, that was a critical factor," he said.

Last year, companies including Subaru of America, defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and energy company Holtec International were given multimillion-dollar tax breaks to relocate jobs there, and the 76ers are building a training facility on the waterfront. Those projects will move more than 1,000 jobs into Camden in the years to come, though critics have noted that the incentives create few new jobs.

Tenants that agree to use the L3 building are also eligible for tax breaks, such as Cooper Health System, which this year received $40 million in incentives to move 353 back-office jobs into the property.

"What the state is doing, it's really creating a buzz in that whole part of the city," Needleman said.

With the addition of Cooper, the building will be completely occupied, Needleman said.

Needleman's company plans to replace the roof of the building and invest in landscaping, he said.

"It's very good for the city, it's very good for us, it's good for the tenants," he said. "The more people you get walking around down there, the happier everyone will be."