March 14, 2023
Stephen Silver/for PhillyVoice
The Oldies.com warehouse at 60 Portland Road in West Conshohocken is visible from the southbound lanes of I-476 near the I-76 exit. The property has been acquired by Velocity Venture Partners for $7.85 million.
The West Conshohocken warehouse with the Oldies.com sign painted on its exterior wall – a landmark visible from I-476 – has been purchased by a Bala Cynwyd-based private equity firm for $7.85 million.
Velocity Ventures Partners acquired the 56,000-square-foot industrial facility at 60 Portland Road with the intent to lease it to one or two tenants. The warehouse was listed for sale last April.
"When you look at the Velocity portfolio, and the broader industrial market in our region, this site checks the boxes of very few competitive assets," Zach Moore, Velocity's founding partner, said in an emailed press release. "With its functional features, and arguably the best location in the marketplace, the execution becomes simple for our team. We believe that the cherry on top, the signage opportunity, will bring an abundance of users to the table across many industries."
For more than a decade, the Oldies.com sign on the warehouse has served as an unofficial mile marker in the southbound lanes of the 20-mile Blue Route. More than 115,000 cars pass by the site on the highway each day, making it one of the most visible advertisements in the region. Billboards are not permitted on the highway, but the warehouse's former owners found a workaround by using the building as a canvas.
Gotham Distributing Co., the parent company of Oldies.com, purchased the warehouse more than a decade ago as a home-base for its direct-to-consumer business. The company sells vinyl, rare and out-of-print CDs, books, magazines, movies and gifts. The owners decided to sell the warehouse last year because they only need a fraction of the space it offers.
Velocity, founded in 2017, manages more than 8 million square feet of industrial space in the Northeast with a focus on serving e-commerce, fulfillment, manufacturing and production companies.
