Paul Kelly of Quaker Fabric tells GlobeSt.com that the company signed a purchase-and-sale agreement for the property with the real estate trust selling it, but can assign their rights to a third party if they find someone else to purchase the property. "We are indicating to the financial community that we can buy it or we have a right to lease it," says Kelly. The deal is in the process of its due-diligence period.

The company, which manufactures woven upholstery fabrics for furniture markets in the US and abroad, plans to consolidate several of its existing operations into this single-story, modern manufacturing and warehousing facility. Larry Liebenow, Quaker's president and CEO, notes that the move will allow the company to reduce its annual operating costs by approximately $3 million beginning in the second half of 2005. "It will also give us the space we need to support our future growth," he adds.

The company intends to invest just over $3 million in automated warehousing equipment in the facility. "Right now, we have a total of about 2.1 million sf of manufacturing and warehousing space in southeastern Massachusetts spread out over a number of different facilities," Liebenow says. By the end of next year, the company plans to move four of the manufacturing and warehousing operations currently conducting in leased facilities into this new plant--leaving a total of 2.4 million sf.