Published: 5/28/2021 4:16:51 PM
One of Concord’s largest commercial properties, 181 acres around two office buildings once occupied by Lincoln Financial, has been sold to Brady Sullivan Properties.
The site, off northern Rumford Street, was sold for a total of $3.4 million, according to real estate transaction records. The property had been listed for $6 million, according to an ad distributed at the end of last year in local media, including the Monitor.
The larger 114,000-square-foot southern building is empty and is up for commercial lease, as a single unit or in units as small as 28,000 square feet. The northern building, totaling about 66,000 square feet, is still under lease to clients, according to James Tobin, director of commercial leasing for Brady Sullivan, one of the state’s largest property development and management firms.
The land is zoned for multiple uses, including a portion for residential development.
Brady Sullivan Properties, based in Manchester owns a number of commercial sites throughout three states. This is its first commercial acquisition in Concord.
It also owns a number of apartment buildings, including Cranmore Ridge on Portsmouth Street. Brady Sullivan bought that complex in 2019 and changed existing leases, raising rents, which drew complaints from long-time tenants who were forced to scramble for alternatives.
Pennsylvania-based Lincoln Financial is a Fortune 250 company that offers investment management, financial advice and insurance. Its Concord presence dates back to 1913 when some locals established United Life & Accident Insurance Co., which over the decades were bought by several other companies until ending up as part of Lincoln Financial in 2006.
Lincoln Financial’s presence in the city had been slowly shrinking for several years and when COVID-19 hit, the buildings were largely emptied. They were put on the market in December.
According to the city’s real estate transactions, the two divisions of the property were sold to two LLCs, called Chelsmford Concord and Granite Concord, that are owned by the Brady Sullivan company.
It is common for large commercial property sales to be made to limited liability corporations that were created just for that sale.