By Matthew Gambino • Posted October 16, 2025

The home of the administrative offices of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will be vacated next year as operations move to a building little more than a block away in center city Philadelphia.

Approximately 250 staff of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center learned details of the plan in an email message Oct. 8 and an informational meeting Oct. 16.

The 13-story building has stood at 222 North 17th Street – earning the nickname “the 2s” – since 1971. It faces a wide range of “significant ongoing and deferred maintenance needs” with costs estimated at $25 million, according to the message.

After consultation over a period of 18 months with outside experts in real estate, finance, construction, and engineering, and following appropriate consultation with numerous advisory bodies of clergy and lay people, Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez signed a lease for office space at Three Parkway, 1601 Cherry Street.

Construction of offices at the new location is underway and expected to be ready for occupation by the spring of 2026.

One key feature is a reduction in the office footprint from the current 130,000 square feet on 12 floors (the 13th includes a cafeteria and a chapel) to less than 80,000 square feet on three floors at the new location, allowing for closer collaboration among staff.

A priority during planning for the move was for the archdiocesan offices to remain “close to so many of the people whom we serve” in center city Philadelphia, the email read.

Since the distance from the current to the new location is a mere 800 feet, employees who drive to their office are expected to continue using the current Archdiocesan Pastoral Center’s parking lot.

Parking in the lot will remain available for liturgies and private prayer at the adjacent Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul and Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel.

The email to staff cited significant long-term cost savings for the Archdiocese that will help to prioritize the Church’s pastoral and charitable ministries while ensuring the financial sustainability of its administrative offices.

“Our priority,” read the message, “must be to place our resources at the service of our shared work of evangelization, education and charity — to invest in mission, not spend on maintenance.”