Seven landmark office buildings on Westport’s Riverside Avenue that once housed Marketing Corp. of America have changed hands again, this time for $54 million, a 46 percent jump in price over the last sale two years ago.
Sold again: seven Riverside Avenue office buildings sold for $54 millioin. WestportNow.com file photo
A filing in the Town Clerk’s office showed the seller as Normandy Realty Partners of Morristown, N.J. and Lexham Private Investors of Stamford, Conn., and the buyer as New York-based Riverside Office 285 & 355, LLC and Riverside Office 321-329, LLC.
The seven-building office complex includes 285 Riverside Ave.; 321-329 Riverside Ave., which consist of five buildings; and 355 Riverside Ave. The complex totals 145,190 square feet of space and was originally constructed from 1981 to 1986.
New York-based pension fund TIAA Realty Inc., sold the properties to Normandy Realty Partners and Lexham Private Investors in April 2003 for $37 million. (See WestportNow June 15, 2003)
The space was once home to Marketing Corp. of America, whose founder and former chairman is former Westporter James McManus. The company is now based in Wilton although building tenants include a unit of Interpublic Group, which now owns Marketing Corp.
Among other tenants in the complex is Allied Domecq Spirits North America, part of Britain’s Allied Domecq PLC, which also owns Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins.
France’s Pernod Ricard reached a $14.2 billion deal to take over Allied Domecq on Thursday.
The sale added almost $135,375,to the town’s coffers, according to Town Clerk Patricia H. Strauss.
Does this mean that the reassesment will not try and shift the burden from the supposedly overvalued commercial properties to the residential sector? It seems as if the decline in commercial property is greatly exaggerated-to paraphrase a noted author