Preferred Sells Spring Mill Complex for $61M

CONSHOHOCKEN, PA-Brooklyn, NY-based Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates Inc. has acquired Spring Mill Corporate Center at 1100 E. Hector St. here for $61 million, or about $98 per sf. The complex is the former Lee Tire Co. factory, which was vacated in the early 1980s and acquired in 1989 by locally based Preferred Real Estate Investments Inc.

Preferred redeveloped the property at an investment of $40 million. As GlobeSt.com reported, the renovation included conversion of the factory space into class A office space, new lobbies, upgraded systems and the addition of a 100-seat café and 75-seat auditorium and training facility.

The renamed Spring Mill Corporate Center consists of three joined buildings aggregating approximately 620,000 sf. Kalmon Dolgin, who heads the company that bears his name, tells GlobeSt.com the asset is located on a 36-acre parcel.

Dolgin says the complex is currently 85% leased, and the asking rent rate is $21.50 per sf. KND Management Co. Inc., a Kalmon Dolgin affiliate, will manage the property. Among the tenants are a 17,000-sf Conshohocken Health & Fitness facility and several office users, including XO Communications, insurer Norman Spencer McKernan, Thomcomp and Idea Integration.

In mid-2004, Preferred began marketing as many as 32 of its then-47 assets, as GlobeSt.com reported, in order to reinvest in properties for adaptive reuse, its specialty. Without specifying which properties were on the market, Michael O’Neill, Preferred’s chairman said they aggregated approximately 5.5 million sf and represented about two-thirds of the company’s portfolio. A call to Preferred regarding the Spring Mill sale was not returned by deadline.