Drexel University real estate people are among the potential buyers who have made repeat visits to the Inquirer and Daily News building at 400 North Broad Street and the parking garage and lot behind it on 15th Street in recent weeks.
Agents for Drexel's Center City medical campus, which includes the dorms, bookstore and classrooms surrounding Hahneman University Hospital, have also been talking to property owners in the 300 block of North 15th Street, just south of the papers' back door, according to real estate sources.
The papers' owner, Philadelphia Media Holdings LP, said last year it wanted to sell the 1920s-era tower, which has been underused since prior owners moved the printing presses and trucks to Upper Merion Township in the early 1990s. The neighboring property at 440 North Broad, once home to the late Inquirer owner Walter Annenberg's TV Guide magazine, now houses offices of the Philadelphia School District.
No word on whether Drexel would share space with, or displace, the 1,000-plus news, advertising, circulation, finance and online workers now in the space. Philadelphia Media chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney declined comment. A Drexel spokesman and the university's real estate office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
