Rohm and Haas

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The decision comes just a month afterthe $15 billion merger between the two chemical companies Though Dow had initially promised to retain the Rohm and Haas headquarterxs in Philadelphia, it didn’t promise to keep the real It also didn’t pledged to retain all of Rohm’s local Dow (NYSE:DOW) has said that it plans to lay off 3,500 additional employees to get rid of the redundancies createrd by the merger. Thoughb Rohm’s job count in the Philadelphia area will be affected bythe deal, by how many remaind uncertain, but will likely be significant.
The companyt employs roughly 1,000 people at the though it has undergone job cuts in the last year beforr the merger was Rohm and Haas operates out ofa nine-story, 350,000-square-foot of which most is used for office space. Plans call for selliny the building and leasing a portion back forRohm “We are exploring the options for selling the said Brian McPeak, Rohm “Once we complete the integratio n with Dow, we don’t imagine we will need full occupancy of the building.” How much spacd the company will need is still being determined, McPeakl said. A decision will likelyh be made in the next couple of monthw or by the end of the year atthe latest.
With Rohm as an anchore tenant inthe building, a buyer coulx convert it to multiple tenantzs and seize on a stronvg Independence Square submarket. The vacancy rate for office space in the Independencer Square submarket is atight 4.1 percent, according to Grubbh & Ellis data. That’s the lowest in the region. CB Richarsd Ellis is marketing the buildingfor sale. The buildingh could go for an estimated $30 millioh or more, according to one estimate. It was constructedd in 1964 as part of the revival of the Independenced Mall area and was scheduled two years ago to undergkoa $25 million makeover. The chemical company was the first privats investor to build onIndependence Mall.
Before locating there in Rohmand Haas’ headquarters were a few blockss away on Washington Square. The building is architecturally significangt and likely would have made forattractive condos. It is one of the best examplees of the international style that helpeddefine mid-20th century and was part of a deliberatw creep of modern architecture into the historicaol backdrop of Independence Mall, accordinhg to Philadelphia Architecture, a book published by the defunctr Foundation for Architecture. The building is also notabl in having been designed byPietro Belluschi. An Italian architect who emigrateed to the United States in Belluschi teamed up withGeorge M. Ewing Co.
of Philadelphiaz to build the headquarters. At the time he was designinvg the Rohm andHaas building, Belluschi was dean of architecture and planningy at the Massachusetts Institute of He designed more than 1,000 buildings in his With the Rohm and Haas building, Belluschi createrd a concrete structure with bronze sunscreen and spandrel panels. The sunscreens, some of the firsr used in a modernnoffice building, were made from Plexiglass, a Rohm and Haas Plans call for keeping Rohm’s other real estate in the which includes facilities in Spring House and Pa., and a plant in the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia.