BRISTOL, PA-The 250,000-sf Jones Apparel Group headquarters and distribution facility at 250 Rittenhouse Circle has been put on the sales block. The plan to dispose of the property follows a restructuring of the Philadelphia-based apparel manufacturing and distribution firm and comes just days before a second round of bidding for acquisition of the company is expected to occur. For previous coverage, click here.

The facility was built in 1982. It is located on 15.6 acres in the Keystone Industrial Park, which is ten minutes from access to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Route 1 and bridges to New Jersey. Binswanger has been appointed to market the building, and Frank Cullen, president of the locally based real estate company's Realty Group East, is heading the effort.

He declined to disclose an asking price for the building, which includes 40,000 sf of office space and an additional 196,000-sf mezzanine. Through a spokeswoman, Cullen confirmed to GlobeSt.com that the average asking sales price for flex/office warehouse facilities in Bucks County is in the range of $48 per sf. In a statement, Cullen says he is "aggressively marketing the property to users in distribution," but declined to indicate whether or not it would become vacant, and a call to Jones was not returned by deadline.

This March, Jones hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. as an advisor in evaluating a possible sale of the company. During an April 26 first-quarter conference call, Peter Boneparth, president and CEO, said the company planned to cut costs by $30 million this year and by more than $100 million by the end of 2007. Within that plan, according to an April 28 SEC filing, was "closure of distribution facilities and certain offices" along with consolidation of facilities. Cost-cutting measures are to "offset the impact of department store consolidations," Boneparth said.

A first round of bidding for the company was completed in late April, and, according to published reports, a second round is expected on Friday, May 26. and the acquisition cost is estimated at between $35 a share and $38 a share, which would take it to the $4-billion range. At noon, May 23, shares of JNY were trading on the NYSE at $34.27 a share.