OMAHA, NE-Industrial Realty Group, based in Downey, CA, has purchased the former Western Electric Co. site, a 1.3-million-square-foot office and industrial property that is known as the largest complex in the state. Commscope, a data and wiring manufacturing company based in Hickory, NC, sold the site for around $19 million, sources say.
The original 2.5-million-square-foot Western plant was originally used to manufacture phone wiring, at one point employing about 7,700 people. However, most of the 93-acre property has shut down, and several land parcels were sold to Specialty Finishing and Millard Lumber.
Connectivity Solutions Manufacturing Inc., a division of Comscope, most recently operated in the property, located at 125th and I Streets. Ryan Zabrowski and RJ Neary with the similarly named, but not related, Investors Realty represented Commscope in the sale. He tells GlobeSt.com that it was unlikely that one buyer would have wanted the entire space, which includes a 140,000-square-foot office building.
“We looked for a developer with a track record of converting large spaces into sizes more usable by today’s companies,” Zabrowski says. “Most of the building is vacant. The seller leased back about 40,000 square feet.”
The buyer is known for purchasing large properties across the country and turning them into multitenant properties, Zabrowski says. Industrial Realty has renovated and redeveloped 80 similar projects, such as the BF Goodrich plant in Akron, OH. Stuart Lichter, a founder and owner of Industrial Realty, said in a statement that the plan is “to put people back to work in these buildings.”
Zabrowski, who is also now leasing the building, says the going rent will be $3.50 per square foot for the industrial space and $10 per square foot for the office space, triple net. “Our office building has floor plates of about 60,000 square feet, that’s really in limited supply in the area,” he says. “And for industrial users, the local vacancy is less than 6%, we think the demand is pretty strong.”
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
