Kolar declined to provide a price for the sale, which includes 240,000-sf Quaker Park here and the two-building, 230,000-sf River Park in nearby Miquon along with buildings in Fort Washington. "This is the largest buy Buccini/Pollin has ever done," he says. "There are some buildings in this transaction we would have kept, but we had the ability to create critical mass for the buyer. A portion of our portfolio is still for sale." That portion includes the 400,000-sf building at 801 Market St. in Philadelphia, which Kolar says "is close to contract.

"We don't buy finished product, and we are primarily long-term holders," Kolar continues. "We fund all our growth internally, and about 30% of the properties in this transaction were with investment partnerships. Now, our partnership properties are 100% sold. This cleans up our operation and we'll go forward without partnerships. Our brand is evolving, and we will focus on larger projects."

He cites last year's acquisition of a 261-acre campus in Attleboro, MA from Texas instruments as an example. Preferred is building a 220,000-sf facility on the site, which it will lease back to TI. "Yet, we won't shy away from adaptive re-use," Kolar says. Preferred acquired about five million sf in 2004 and plans to buy another five million sf this year, according to Kolar. "We're shooting at having between 12 million sf and 14 million sf in our portfolio at year end which will make our company larger than ever."

Michael O'Neill, Preferred's founder and chairman, specialized from the start in redeveloping vacant industrial sites. Quaker Park was once Quaker Chemical Co., for example, and River Park is on the former Simpson Paper Co. site. O'Neill, Kolar and Nimish Sanghrajka, EVP, are the private company's sole shareowners.

Preferred's 50%-partner in Quaker Park reports its share of proceeds from the sale of that property is estimated at $4.2 million. The entity, Quaker Park Associates, was formed by locally based Quaker Chemical Co. in 2001 to jointly redevelop the former manufacturing site into an office park, part of which is Quaker's headquarters.

Instant Insights /

Preferred Disposes of 20 Properties; Gets Set to Buy

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