Empty Ericsson Building Brings About $1.7M

RICHARDSON, TX-American Industrial Properties REIT has taken in $1.66 million in the sale of a 20,645-sf office building in the Telecom Corridor after two eager brokers, who approached with an offer, negotiated a lease termination with telecommunications giant, Ericsson, as part of the deal.

The buyer of record is KMKM Properties Ltd., an entity set up for the purchase of 2121 Glenville Dr. The inbound occupant, Mass Group Marketing, will move in Jan. 1 in a relocation from a 6,000-sf office building in Plano that’s now come to market for sale or lease, Steven Schneider of Grubb & Ellis Co. in Dallas tells GlobeSt.com. It was the job of Schneider and partner, Bo Estes, to dicker the early out with Ericsson, which had 2 1/2 years left on a five-year lease. The sale has been at the talking table since spring.

Ericsson moved out about a year ago. The sublease task fell to the Staubach Co.’s Doug Carignan. But then along came the Grubb & Ellis team and the Dallas-based businessman to convince the REIT that a one-off sale was a good exit strategy. The hitch was that the brokers had to bargain out of the lease. “The termination allowed us to purchase the building for less than what the seller wanted to sell the building for,” Schneider says. “We basically convinced them to sell us the building if we could reach an agreement with Ericsson on a termination.”

The new owner will put about $150,000 into interior improvements into the 19-year-old structure sitting on a 72,527-sf tract. Jim Gordon of Comerica Bank’s Richardson office arranged an acquisition and rehab loan.