The development corporation, a nonprofit funded by the city of Temple and the Temple Reinvestment Zone, declined to say what it paid for the property, which includes a 498,000-sf industrial/office building. "It was the kind of deal we couldn't refuse," Larry Ruggiano, Temple's EDC executive director, tells GlobeSt.com. "We bought it very, very right."
The sale closes TI's books on the property where it operated a plant that made computer printers. The Dallas-based company closed the site some years ago as it exited several lines of business to concentrate on computer chips. The property had been for sale for about 3 1/2 years ago, according to J. Holmes Davis IV, the senior vice president of Binswanger/CBB who represented the company. Binswanger, based in Philadelphia, took the listing over about 1 1/2 years ago.
Davis tells GlobeSt.com that he has worked with Temple officials over the years and the sale grew out of those relationships and TEDC's idea for a biotech park. Temple is home to several medical-related entities, including Scott & White Memorial Hospital, a Veterans Administration hospital and research center, cardiac research center and part of the Texas A&M University medical school. "This could be a key asset where we could augment what they're doing," says Ruggiano.
A proposal for the building is out and an answer should come in about 60 days, Ruggiano confides. He won't name the company, but says "if that goes through it'll be something that would be an immediate asset that gets started right away." He also says the TEDC is looking at starting an incubator for start-up companies in the building. In the meantime, the TEDC is fixing up the property and developing a strategic and marketing plan.
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