The facility was once used to manufacture light bulbs before Gilbane Properties and College Street Investments acquired it last year. The new owners redeveloped the building and cleaned up the environmental issues that plagued the property.

According to Mark Reardon, senior director with Cushman & Wakefield's brokerage services group, the company is relocating this manufacturing facility from England. "We zeroed in on Massachusetts as a place they wanted to be in," Reardon, who represented Applied Materials in the transaction, tells GlobeSt.com. "A lot of their competitors are located in Danvers so it gives them access to people familiar with the industry and access to the local talent."

While Reardon would not disclose the final lease rate, he says that the asking rate for the property was in the mid high teens per sf. But, he adds, "I fully expect them to purchase it. It makes sense with the investments they are putting into the building." Applied Materials is putting $40 million of improvements into the building.