Parliament Coffee signs for first Center City location

Parliament Espresso and Coffee Bar — owned by Starr Catering — will open its first Philadelphia location and its first free-standing shop on the ground floor of the Graham Building at 30 S. 15th St., across from Dilworth Park and City Hall.

Also coming to the building will be machine-based "negative" training gym X-Force Philadelphia, on the mezzanine level, said Jacob Cooper of MSC Retail, who handled the transactions. Doug Himmelreich and Mike Dolan of Stockton Real Estate Advisors represented the landlord, Grasso Holdings.

Both are set to open this fall.

It's a mighty caffeinated part of town, with La Colombe across the street in the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton as well as Bluestone Lane across Penn Square.

Then again, development in the immediate vicinity includes the soon-to-be-completed 240-room W Hotel and 460-room Element Hotel by Westin, both across the street at 15th and Chestnut Streets.

Parliament's first location opened nearly a year ago at the New-York Historical Society and plans to open in Charlotte, N.C., and at the Brightline station in Miami.

Its coffee — sourced from a family-run farm in Nicaragua — is now served at cafes at the Art Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Barnes Foundation.

In 2015, Stephen Starr sold off Starr Catering and it is now a subsidiary of catering giant Elior.