Real estate investor Equus leaving Center City for Newtown Square

Real estate investment firm Equus Capital Partners Ltd. is moving its 110-member Philadelphia office from Center City to a new headquarters building it plans at Ellis Preserve, a mixed-use development site it owns in Newtown Square.

The firm intends to move to the new building in April 2018, when its current lease for 35,000 square feet expires at the Centre Square office building at 1500 Market St., Equus said in a release on Monday. Work on the new 42,000-square-foot building at Ellis Preserve, near the junction of Routes 3 and 252, is set to begin this spring, it said.

Equus chief executive Dan DiLella said in the release that the move "will support our business goals of attracting and retaining talented professionals who seek to balance a career and an active social life with good schools and safe neighborhoods."

Ellis Preserve, which has been has been under development since 2004, currently contains 975,000 square feet of office space and a 110,000-square-foot retail center anchored by Whole Foods. Construction is underway at the site for a 138-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel and a 252-unit multi-family residential complex.