Vanguard’s R&D office will be at 2300 Chestnut

Although speculations around the location of Vanguard’s recently announced “Innovation Center” put the financial services company’s gateway office in University City, the official location has been revealed to be in Center City.

As Philly.com first reported, the Malvern, Pa.-based company will be setting up camp at 2300 Chestnut Street, the building that also houses suburban insurance software makers iPipeline’s so-called “gateway office” and Saxbys Coffee’s sleek headquarters.

The space, slated to open in the second quarter for 2017, will span close to 16,000 square feet of open plan office space across two floors, per a company press release. An initial force of 20 employees — or “crew members,” as Vanguard prefers to call its workers — will be the first occupants of the research space with projection of up to 100 more employees and “external partners” to use the space if need as projects require.

“We are pleased to set up shop in Philadelphia, and give the Vanguard Innovation Center the benefits and resources of the region’s thriving entrepreneurial scene,” said Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb. “Our new location solidifies our commitment to the city, and we’re grateful to the local support we have received as we establish this new venture.”

The spot was reportedly selected because of its proximity to the city’s “academic and business communities”, along with easy access to the main transportation centers, which allows for easy connectivity to the firm’s Malvern HQ.

We recently spotted Vanguard in the city at our tech jobs fair, NET/WORK.

The new gateway office also has some tech neighbors of note outside the building: a couple of blocks away, in the 2400 block of Walnut Street, is Curalate’s HQ and coworking center CityCoHo.