December 11, 2015
Evrik/Via Wikipedia
The 2004 season of MTV's "Real World" was filmed in a 14,500-square-foot, three-story building at Third and Arch streets in Old City. Built in 1902, it was known as the Union Bank of Philadelphia Building until 1970, when it was sold to Seamen's Church Institute
An Old City property made famous by MTV's reality show The Real World was finally scooped off the market Friday by Haddonfield-based cloud services company Linode.
The 15,000-square-foot property at 249 Arch Street sold for $5 million and will serve as the new headquarters for Linode, which was founded in 2003 and provides hosting infrastructure to more than 400,000 customers worldwide.
The three-story neoclassical building, constructed in 1902 as the Union National Bank, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It was featured in the MTV's The Real World in 2004, a season made memorable in part by the cast's assignment to work for the Philadelphia Soul under then part-time owner Jon Bon Jovi.
Linode CEO Christopher S. Aker said he recognized the tech corridor in Old City and Northern Liberties as a community of "brilliant, innovative, talented, visionary IT pros" that promote a culture and community for Linode to thrive and collaborate.
Aker, who first took interest in the property about a year-and-a-half ago, plans to convert the building into an office space that can accommodate an additional 50-75 new hires who will join the existing staff of 85 employees, he told the Philadelphia Business Journal.
No Linode employees will be forced to move to Philadelphia, the company said. Most new hires will be made into the Philadelphia building (once it is opened), and most employees will have the option of working out of the Philadelphia office all or some of the time. There are no current plans to close the offices in Galloway Township, outside of Atlantic City, or Haddonfield.
Aker talked with the Philadelphia Business Journal about the property:
"I’m proud of having bought the building, and I feel like we’re going to save this thing," he said. "I hope the community appreciates it as well. We will leave it in a better condition than we found it.
"The farther away you move, the bigger risk there is to your company," Aker said. "I thought that [moving to Philadelphia] had the best chance of success from a risk standpoint. The entire company is in South Jersey right now, near the Philadelphia area. There's a thriving tech community on Nerd Street, and we haven’t yet benefited from meeting other tech companies. I'm very much looking forward to that."
With data centers in North America, Europe and Asia, Linode offers subscribers worldwide the ability to create a server with a scalable environment that meets evolving demands. The company has been rated one of the top 10 largest web-hosting providers and has received favorable performance ratings in comparison to competitors.
