Preferred Real Estate Acquires IBM Site for $20M, Plans up to $400M for Improvements

The 160-acre property contains six buildings totaling 982,987 sf of space. The complex had until recently served as a manufacturing/research hub of IBM's high-tech microchip operations. The property went on the market in April after IBM opened its new $2.5 billion 300-millimeter microchip fabrication facility on the East campus of Hudson Valley Research Center.

"This is a one-of-a-kind facility," says Mike O'Neill, CEO of Preferred Real Estate Investments. "It offers exceptional infrastructure and is uniquely suited for companies requiring highly specialized manufacturing space, such as those in the semiconductor, nanotechnology, aerospace, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries."

Charlie Houder, director of acquisitions for Preferred, adds that IBM signed a short-term lease for a portion of the space so as to allow the remaining workers at the West campus to relocate. An IBM spokesman says that the few remaining workers at the West campus facility will be relocated to other areas of IBM's East Fishkill campus in the next seven months or so.

Collier's International's Stephen Rothrock, senior vice president, and Doug Barrett, vice president, with the firm's Advanced Technology Real Estate Group's Seattle office represented IBM. The West campus includes a total of six buildings that feature approximately 500,000 sf of office, data and call center space and 400,000 sf of clean room manufacturing space. Additional amenities include a nitrogen-to-dry lab, bulk gas delivery facilities, a central utilities plant, two power substations, a wastewater treatment plant, a cafeteria, a 400-seat auditorium and breakout rooms.

Houder says that the company has already begun marketing the property, which has been renamed "Hudson Valley Technology Campus," to domestic and foreign users. He says that the property could be multi-tenanted if necessary and a transaction could be structured whereby a portion of the property could be sold instead of leased. Based on the interest generated by the property thus far, Houder says, "We are pretty confident that we can have most of the property leased by the end of 2006."