CRANSTON – The Tyco Fire & Building Products property in Cranston, a historic fire suppression manufacturing, research and development facility, was recently sold for nearly $15 million but with a long-term lease that keeps the company in place, according to public records of the transaction.
The 6.5-acre site at 1467 Elmwood Ave. was sold by Tyco Fire Products LP to JCICRR1001 LLC, which is a limited liability company established in Delaware by the Chicago-based private equity firm Oak Street Real Estate Capital LLC, according to the special warranty deed, a public record documenting the sale.
The property contains at least four buildings, amounting to 66,000 square feet, including the Tyco Engineering Center, the Tyco Residential Test Facility and the Tyco Frederick Grinnell Education Center, which includes a 48-seat multimedia amphitheater, according to the city’s property tax evaluation database.
The history of the property as an automatic fire-suppression sprinkler company dates back to 1881, when Frederick Grinnell patented the technology after buying the site 12 years earlier when it was known as Providence Steam and Gas Pipe Co.
Following a number of acquisitions and name changes, the company was purchased by Tyco International in 1976. In 2006, Tyco invested $5 million in the property, including the addition of 4,300 square feet of laboratory space used for valve and sprinkler testing for industrial, commercial and residential applications. The 2006 renovation included a new 11,000-gallon water tank and recirculation system to minimize the discharge of water used at the site during fire sprinkler testing, the company said.
The Tyco site was most recently valued by Cranston assessors in 2022 as being worth $3.7 million, according to the city’s online property tax evaluation database.
The site has not been used for manufacturing in recent history, but it has been used to test products and develop products that are made by the company in Texas and the United Kingdom. The training facility has drawn hundreds of visitors each year, the company said previously, including fire departments, fire marshals and others from the fire suppression industry.
Tyco became part of global multi-industry conglomerate Johnson Controls in 2016 under a definitive merger agreement, which gave Johnson Controls shareholders about 56% of the equity of the combined company, while Tyco shareholders were given 44% equity.
The terms of the long-term lease in place between Tyco and the new property owner were not divulged as part of the warranty deed, but the public document states that the property “conveyance is subject to a long-term lease” between the new owner and Tyco.
Oak Street Real Estate Capital was established in 2009 to manage both commingled funds and separate accounts on behalf of institutional and high net worth investors, including pension plans and insurance companies. The diversified real estate firm invests in properties that are net-leased and provides financing to early-stage real estate managers.
Oak Street became a division of Blue Owl Capital Inc. in 2021 as the result of a definitive merger agreement, with Blue Owl acquiring Oak Street for $950 million.
Marc Larocque is a PBN contributing writer.