Construction has begun on the former Texas Instruments site in Attleboro that is being developed into the Attleboro Corporate Campus, which new owner Philadelphia-based Preferred Real Estate plans to redevelop as a mixed-use community.
Preferred, a real estate company known for transforming former industrial sites into new office, residential and retail space, completed its purchase of the 261-acre site last December. The company plans to turn the former industrial site into a manufacturing, laboratory, research and development, retail, residential and office space community.
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Texas Instruments’ Sensors and Controls division will stay on the campus, but will move its operations and 1,300 employees to a new three-story, 220,000-square-foot division headquarters/business and technology center at the southeast corner of the property, which is scheduled for completion by the end of the year, according to Mike Kolar, senior broker for the corporate campus for Preferred.
“We’ve started pouring the foundations,” on the new TI building, he said.
TI will lease the building from Preferred for 20 years, as well as another existing 215,000-square-foot building that will be used for limited manufacturing, product launches and labs, according to the company.
Preferred said the redeveloped campus and its 14 existing buildings, most of which the real estate company said could be renovated, could accommodate an additional 3,000 employees, and should be especially attractive to other manufacturers. Among the campus’ selling points are the on-site wastewater treatment facility, the ample power infrastructure and freight rail service.
“Historically this has been manufacturing, office and some lab space, so we’d naturally attract that first,” he said. “Our history is of redeveloping (land), so we’re keeping it open” to any interested developers or companies. “There’s a lot of space with great infrastructure.”
The existing buildings have a mixture of office and manufacturing space, Kolar said, and could be easily readied for new tenants. Preferred plans to do some interior demolition and renovation to keep the spaces as open and site-ready as possible for tenants, he said. The second building, which is 36,000 square feet, is 100 percent office space. The space will be priced at around $20 per square foot for sale, Kolar said.
“These buildings can be anything,” he said. And while the campus is zoned industrial, if retailers or other commercial users were interested, Preferred would work with the town on new zoning.
Approximately 110 acres of wooded area is already zoned and set aside for residential development, according to the company. Preferred will also be courting local and national developers for the project, and Kolar said at least 17 companies had expressed interest. The real estate company is currently evaluating bids from nine or 10 developers, and plans to make an announcement on the residential project within the next three months.
