RBJ Facilitates Reunion In $8.2M Industrial Sale

NORTH READING—A 92,000-sf warehouse parked off Interstate 93 is not exactly standard fare as a reunion venue, but the $8.2 million purchase of 200 Riverpark Dr. by Atlantic Management Corp. has brought that local investor back together with the building’s tenant, Shire Pharmaceuticals. Framingham-based Atlantic redeveloped the former Raytheon headquarters in Lexington that was leased and ultimately acquired by Shire in a blockbuster $200 million sale.

Since that outcome, Atlantic and Shire have gone their separate ways, the tenant inking a lease for all of 200 Riverpark Dr. last year from owner High Street Equity Partners to support its Lexington operations while Atlantic has been on an active buying spree in Greater Boston. Most notably, the group founded by Joseph L. Zink paid $8.8 million this summer to secure a 110-acre, 750,000-sf business park in Marlborough abandoned by owner Hewlett Packard.

Zink agrees the Shire element made for a level of comfort when his firm was encouraged to pursue the North Reading opportunity that was listed by Richards Barry Joyce & Partners. “It’s a really strong tenant who we have a great relationship with,” he says. Calls to RBJ Capital Markets chief Frank Petz to discuss the deal were not returned by press deadline, but Zink acknowledges the Boston-based brokerage house handled negotiations on behalf of High Street Equity Partners, which acquired the building in May 2005 after paying $7.8 million.

From an investments standpoint, a big turnaround for 200 Riverpark Dr. occurred last summer when Shire committed to a long-term lease. Although the new owner declined to discuss specifics, Shire reportedly has another dozen years remaining. Zink says the pedigree of the structure was equally important to the tenant roster when choosing to acquire 200 Riverpark Dr. in an all-cash transaction. “It’s an absolutely beautiful building,” he says.