A New Jersey-based real estate investment fund manager has acquired a 614,600-square-foot warehouse in the Newington Business Park for $13 million.
Hampshire Cos. said the property at 475 Willard Ave., which has 14 acres of space under its roof, is part of its plan to expand its presence in Connecticut.
The building becomes the company’s largest holding in Connecticut, which includes its 2006 purchase of a 404,282-square-foot office building at 20 Church St. in Hartford.
“We still see some velocity in the marketplace, and we are talking to possible tenants for our properties,” said Norman Feinstein, executive managing director of the Hampshire Cos. “We have not seen any migration from any of our Connecticut properties.”
The success of the Hartford office building has led to the Hampshire Cos. focusing on expanding their portfolio in the state when the opportunity arises.
Location, Location
“We like the location, between New York and Boston, and we have a presence in Connecticut,” Feinstein said. “It gives us the ability to stay on top of our properties and provide aggressive management to increase the values of the properties.”
The location of the Newington warehouse, near Interstate 91, made it an attractive purchase, said Nick Morizio of Colliers Dow & Condon. Morizio represented the Hampshire Cos. and the seller, Los Angeles-based IRG LLC, in the deal.
“They bought it at a good price. It’s a good location, and they have already had interest from tenants,” Morizio said.
When the purchase was completed, the facility was 48 percent occupied by A.H. Harris and Son, International Contractor Services and Huttig Building Products. Since the deal, the Hampshire Cos. inked a lease agreement for 60,000 square feet of space for Shuco, a Germany-based window manufacturer whose U.S. headquarters is in Newington.
The company is looking to rent out the remaining space at roughly $4 per square foot, Morizio said.
There are already plans in the works to renovate the building and develop 21 acres surrounding the building. “We want to renovate the property to make it more attractive to industrial tenants and make it a place that they want to be at,” Feinstein said.
