{"id":281270,"date":"2026-09-08T06:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281270\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T06:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:00:07","slug":"axis-apartment-building-now-fully-penn-owned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/281270\/","title":{"rendered":"Axis apartment building now fully Penn-owned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Penn recently obtained full ownership of The Axis, an apartment building located at 36th and Ludlow streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The deal follows a nearly 20 year period during which the University <a href=\"\" target=\"_blank\">held<\/a> a 50% interest in the property, according to Associate Vice President of Real Estate Services Rachel Siegert. The seven-story building, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/philadelphia\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/penn-acquires-residential-building-university-city.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">valued<\/a> at $9.4 million, also served as Penn student housing during the 2024-25 academic year while Ware College House underwent renovations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the other partners decided to exit their investment, Penn acquired their interests, the partnership was dissolved, and title transferred directly to the University,\u201d Siegert wrote. \u201cThe transaction provided Penn with an opportunity to simplify the ownership structure of The Axis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Siegert added that the building\u2019s existing management team will continue to operate the property. The Axis is one of around 80 communities <a href=\"https:\/\/altmanco.com\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">operated<\/a> under Altman Management Company, which manages properties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The 130-unit building was <a href=\"https:\/\/property.phila.gov\/?p=881601401\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">built<\/a> in 1925 and sold for $7 million in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>During the 2024-25 academic year, students <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2024\/12\/penn-axis-apartment-building-student-experience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">living<\/a> in The Axis each had their own private bathroom, a refrigerator, televisions, and occasionally a walk-in closet. Just under half of the residents were second-year students, around 7-8% were transfers, and the remaining residents were upperclassmen, according to Residential Services at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-serif\">Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/thedp.us2.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=a96885e3aa3f8131c872ee329&amp;id=370b4800ba\" class=\"newsletter-btn font-sans no-underline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the Quad renovations were underway, the University also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2022\/09\/penn-to-lease-radian-quad-renovations-august-2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">leased<\/a> the Radian \u2014\u00a0an apartment complex on Walnut Street \u2014 from August 2023 to August 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Penn\u2019s acquisition of The Axis comes after a summer of housing developments and two major property purchases in University City.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In June, Penn and real estate company Greystar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/06\/penn-greystar-graduate-housing-development-sansom-2027\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced<\/a> a redevelopment project for Sansom Place West \u2014 the University\u2019s last on-campus graduate student housing option \u2014 which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2023\/03\/penn-on-campus-graduate-housing-changes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">closed<\/a> at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. The building is set to reopen by the start of the 2027-28 academic year with 448 apartments.<\/p>\n<p>The two entities previously collaborated on the $94.5 million <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2022\/04\/sansom-place-east-renovation-2023-penn-grad-housing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">renovation<\/a> of Sansom Place East, now known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2023\/09\/penn-graduate-students-accolade-chesnut-housing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Accolade<\/a> on Chestnut. The project was completed in 2023 after students <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2019\/10\/penn-sansom-place-east-grad-student-housing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">complained<\/a> about poor living conditions.<\/p>\n<p>This summer, Penn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/06\/penn-hummus-grill-walnut-property-redevelopment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">purchased<\/a> the property formerly occupied by Hummus Grill near 40th and Walnut streets for $4 million after the Mediterranean restaurant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/05\/penn-hummus-grill-restaurant-closure-campus-dining\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">closed<\/a> in May. New York City-based restaurant 7th Street Burger is set to open a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/07\/penn-university-city-7th-street-burger-opening\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">new location<\/a> there later this year.<\/p>\n<p>The University also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/07\/penn-tabernacle-united-church-acquisition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">acquired<\/a> Tabernacle United Church for $6.5 million. The church, which has long had a relationship with Penn, will continue holding services and housing Penn Live Arts\u2019 Iron Gate Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>Senior reporter James Wan leads administration reporting and can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedp.com\/article\/2026\/09\/mailto:wan@thedp.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wan@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, he studies communication and computer science. Follow him on X <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jameswan__\" rel=\"nofollow\">@JamesWan__<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn recently obtained full ownership of The Axis, an apartment building located at 36th and Ludlow streets.\u00a0 The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-281270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}