Towers Perrin Takes Advantage of Woodcrest Corporate Center

Global professional services firm Towers Perrin is the first tenant at the Woodcrest Corporate Center, Cherry Hill, a $50-million project, being developed by O'Neill Properties, that is viewed by the state and others as "smart growth." Located where the Langston Corporation facility once stood, the center - which offers 333,725 square feet - was constructed on a brownfields property and is juxtaposed to the Patco High Speed Line (which provides light rail service to Philadelphia).

"Most other [developers] looked at the site and thought that it would be the same type of use as [Langston had]: industrial, or low-rent warehouse," recalls Rich Heany, executive vice president at O'Neill Properties. "We looked at it and said, "This can be something much more significant than that. "And our thoughts were: institutional, Class A office."

O'Neill purchased the property at the end of 2002, but didn't destroy the Langston facility completely. Rather, it was reduced to what Heany calls a "shell" condition, in which the basic structural components of the building were left intact.