"This sale signifies a major positive economic trend in the area," Cushman & Wakefield broker Thomas Farrelly says of the Liberty Commerce disposition. Via Liberty's previous harvest of 12 acres to another user and plans to trade another nine acres, the complex will eventually house three separate operations, reports Farrelly. The C&W executive director calls 100 North West Blvd. "a classic opportunity to reposition a major corporate surplus asset in a value-added play" by Boston-based Liberty. The company acquired 55 acres and 100 North West Blvd. from Corning, which had conceived the facility to serve as a world-class fiber optics plant. When that fledgling industry took a nosedive, Corning bailed on the project, selling to Liberty Cos. what was at the time an unfinished and vacant complex.

The initial 12 acres were harvested by Liberty to Bellavance Beverage for construction of a 100,000-sf cold storage distribution facility to replace its operation at One Bud Way in Nashua. The subsequent sale to Two C Pack Systems was handled on Liberty's end by Farrelly and C&W colleagues Denis Dancoes and Sue Ann Johnson. Bill Luers of Tamposi-Nash Real Estate Group acted on behalf of the buyer. C&W has also been retained to sell the remaining nine acres, plus a 72,000-sf building on Dumaine Avenue in Nashua that presently houses Lowell Box and is also part of the Liberty Cos. portfolio.

A family-owned real estate investment firm whose management team includes president Andrew Cable and CEO Mohsin Amiji, Liberty Cos. has assembled more than five million sf of industrial and office properties concentrated in New England, plus a residential development in Worcester. Liberty Cos. also owns 44 Simon St. in Nashua, a flex complex with 240,000 sf on 18 acres, and numerous Massachusetts properties. The firm touts itself as a pioneer in "outside the box" strategies for buying, redeveloping and marketing underperforming or surplus commercial properties. Amiji did not respond to a GlobeSt.com call regarding the latest transaction by press deadline.