Four office buildings in Norwalk’s Merritt 7 Corporate Park containing almost 1 million square feet of space have sold for $58.5 million, according to a brokerage representing the seller.
Merritt 7 Owner LLC, controlled by Andrew Penson, of New York, has bought the seven-story buildings containing 945,000 square feet of office space, at 301-601 Merritt 7, according to the Stamford office of CBRE. Penson is the president of Argent Ventures, a New York City-based real estate investment firm.
Calls to Argent Ventures were not immediately returned.
The seller was Merritt 7 Venture LLC, controlled by Fairfield Investors Inc. and New York State Teacher’s Retirement System. Merritt 7 Venture LLC owns the 101 and 201 Merritt 7 office buildings, which developer Saber-Hightower plans on buying if the city approves its plans to turn them into 300 apartments.
The four buildings involved in the recent sale have a total appraised value of $148.5 million and a total assessed value of $103.9 million, property records stated.
CBRE brokers Jeff Dunne, Steven Bardsley and Travis Langer represented Merritt 7 Venture in the deal and procured the buyer, Merritt 7 Owner LLC. They noted the headquarters of Xerox, Terex, Emcor, Hearst Connecticut Media Group, Common Fund, Datto/Kaseya, MBI and LBB Specialties as tenants.
Dunne said the building’s location near the Merritt Parkway, Route 7 and the Merritt 7 train station makes it accessible to much of Fairfield County and provides rail service to New York City. He added that the new owner is expected to lease the remaining vacant space, though the current vacancy rate was not disclosed.
Argent Ventures is a New York City-based real estate investment and development firm founded in 1997 that specializes in opportunistic and value-add transactions across asset classes. According to its website, the firm has acquired more than $3 billion in real estate assets and debt instruments in the U.S. and Europe, with past investments including data centers, life sciences properties and major New York City assets such as the fee interest in Grand Central Terminal.
