The former Apex distribution center in Seekonk has been purchased for $4 million by an area wholesaler.
The 11-acre Vineyard Road site was bought by Boston Warehouse, a Norwood-based gift and housewares distributor. The deal was finalized last month.
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Boston Warehouse Vice President of Finance Ellen Yavner cited the property’s location — with its easy access to Interstates 95 and 495 – as attractive, but even more than that, she said, “we were looking in terms of square footage.”
The 118,000-square-foot warehouse on the property will replace Boston Warehouse’s building in Taunton as its sole distribution facility. The company’s corporate offices will remain in Norwood.
Founded in the mid-1970s, Boston Warehouse sells gift items to specialty retailers as well as large chains (including Williams-Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond and Target) throughout the country.
The building’s price tag — at almost $34 per square foot – “is probably a little higher than you’d typically see in a building like that, but there’s so little available,” said Michael Giuttari of NAI MG Commercial Real Estate in Providence.
“It could be typical if there were more of that type of building around,” he said.
Giuttari mentioned a similar building on 16 acres in Lincoln currently on the market for $4 million.
“Now an appraiser will compare it (Lincoln) to the building in Seekonk,” he said.
The Apex property in Warwick has not been sold, according to the Warwick tax assessor’s office. Apex’s Swansea location is at the Swansea Mall, owned by Lend Lease.
On January 23, Apex – with stores in Pawtucket, Warwick and Swansea — announced it would close the Warwick and Swansea facilities, in the midst of downsizing and consolidating operations in Pawtucket.
Of the 400 workers employed by Apex, about 20 or 30 will remain at the Pawtucket store.
Those displaced will receive separation packages, said Mike Dvorin, the company’s vice president of merchandising in a previous interview with the Providence Business News. The company’s restructuring will include an increased emphasis on Apex’s At-Home division and its e-commerce business, apex-stores.com.
The company’s e-commerce site went live in 1996.
The At-Home division includes such items as small appliances and cookware. They will continue to be sold out of the Pawtucket facility, Dvorin said.
News that the majority of Apex’s employees would be losing their jobs came only weeks after the news that Ann & Hope, another local retail icon, was closing its stores in Seekonk, Danvers, North Dartmouth, and Watertown, Massachusetts and down-sizing operations significantly in Cumberland and Warwick, Rhode Island.
The Ann & Hope closing and restructuring is expected to displace at least 1,400 employees.
According to a press release at the time of the company’s announcement, an agreement had already been reached with Eastern Development Company of Woburn to purchase all four Massachusetts Ann & Hope sites and approximately 250,000 square feet of the company’s building in Warwick.
However, no sale has been finalized on any of these properties, according to the tax assessor’s offices in each town.
Ann & Hope’s Seekonk property, located on Route 6, has been assessed at close to $9 million. Tenants on the property include Firestone Tire & Auto and Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar. Ann & Hope’s Watertown property has been assessed at $12.8 million, and the company’s 28 acres in North Dartmouth is valued at $7.6 million.
Ann & Hope’s 9.7 acres on Warwick’s Post Road is assessed at over $2 million.
