A marquee office complex in Farmington has sold for nearly $30 million, a bright spot in an otherwise bruising market for office properties in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The sale price of Pond View Corporate Center at 74-76 Batterson Park Road is almost $10 million above the previous purchase price in 2019, according to land records. And the transaction is the largest office sale so far this year in Connecticut.
The office property “has proven that it is a location in demand, even during the tough COVID environment,” said Jeffrey Dunne, a broker at commercial real estate firm CBRE which represented the seller, in a statement.
In a statement to The Courant, Dunne said, “I think the acquisition is a great endorsement for a suburban area like Farmington and the greater Hartford market.”
Dunne also said he believes suburban properties are generally preferred to urban properties in the current post-Covid office market.
Pond View is a two-building office complex with 225,551 square feet, which is 92% leased, capitalizing, brokers say, on its location along the Interstate 84 corridor and connections from Interstate 91 to both Hartford and New Haven.
The sale comes as many office buildings owners see their tenants downsizing their leases, regionally and across the country. The pandemic abruptly moved employees from offices to their homes and, in the aftermath, many remain working remotely either full- or part-time.
A report earlier this year by CBRE showed that office space available for lease in the Hartford area represented more than 27% of the region’s total, encompassing 7 million square feet at the end of the last year.
That compares with compares with 23%, or 5.7 million square feet at the end of 2019, prior to the pandemic.
The office buildings are adjacent to 10 acres sold by Pond LLC to Fairfield-based Skala Partners for $7.8 million. Skala plans a development of 204 apartments and construction could begin this fall.
The buyer of the office properties wasn’t disclosed in the release but was described as a “private family office.” The purchase is the buyer’s first acquisition in the Hartford area, according to the release.
CBRE declined to identify the buyer. The sale has not yet been recorded on the land records in Farmington.
The sellers of 74-76 Batterson Park Road — Pond LLC, owned by Sovereign Partners LLC of New York — recently invested $3 million in building improvements and amenities.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
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August 15, 2023 at 04:24PM
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Farmington sale bright spot in Hartford area's office market - Hartford Courant
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