CBRE Lands Assignment for Former IBM Building

Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds and Savanna Partners, which acquired the complex in May, plan to significantly upgrade and reposition the facility into a class A office and/or data center property, CB Richard Ellis officials say. Improvements at the property will include a fully renovated lobby, entrances and common areas designed to upgrade and modernize the overall look and feel of the building as well as selective upgrades to the building systems. Other property enhancements in the works are improvements to building's common areas, facade, parking lot and landscaping.

CBRE's Frank Tomasulo and Paul Hoffmann and Commercial Associates Realty's Thomas Collins are exclusive leasing agents for the property. Approximately 130,000 sf of space is currently available for lease in the two-story office building. The building was built-to-suit for IBM, which vacated the property as part of its regional corporate downsizing some years ago. Existing tenants in the building include: Care Core National, LLC, Emerald Technology Solutions, Inc. and Epson Research & Development, Inc.

Nicholas Bienstock, a managing partner of Savanna, notes that the property will be marketed to office and data operations users and or firms interested in establishing a disaster recovery center. Given a recent white paper issued by the Federal Reserve Board and the Security and Exchange Commission advising major New York City-based financial services institutions to establish back-up facilities located on a separate power grid, he says the property is ideal for tenants requiring back-up systems.

"We saw this building as one of the closest institutional-grade facilities to New York City that meets the mandated requirement set forth in the white paper," Bienstock says. "Very significant electric power can be provided to 169 Myers Corners Rd. by regional utility CH Energy Group, Inc., with the power being supplied via dual feeds located on a different power grid from New York City. Given this availability of redundant, low cost power and the additional availability of redundant fiber to the property, the facility will be highly attractive to large data center/disaster recovery users as well as traditional office tenants."

Jonathan Mensch, a principal of Savanna, adds, "The region lacks a clear solution for office users looking for 5,000 sf or more of office space in an institutionally-owned and managed building. Our goal is to transform 169 Myers Corners Rd. into the premier office building in the Mid-Hudson Valley by offering highly attractive space and full tenant build-outs at highly competitive lease rates."

Lubert-Adler manages a series of real estate investment funds, including its Fund IV that contains more than $1 billion in equity. Savanna is a New York City-based real estate investment and development firm that has purchased, repositioned and sold more than $260 million of real estate since its inception in 1992.CBRE Tomasulo says that his firm is already in discussions with several interested tenants for the property. In addition to 169 Myers Corners Rd., the 50-acre property also features a 300,000-sf pad site that could be developed for office/light industrial or research/laboratory use.