Menomonee Falls-based Arandell Corp. has sold its headquarters to a New York investment firm for $23 million and will now lease the facility from the new owner.
The 550,000-square-foot facility was purchased by CPA:18 – Global, a managed non-traded real estate investment trust of W.P. Carey Inc.
“The transaction unlocks resources that will be used to reinvest in the growth of the business, adding new equipment and pursuing other strategic initiatives including potential acquisitions,” Arandell president and CEO Bradley Hoffman said.
The deal includes a 20-year lease of the facility back to Arandell, a catalog printing and direct marketing company. W.P. Carey specializes in corporate sale-leaseback and build-to-suit financing.
The facility at N82 W13118 Leon Road has served as Arandell’s corporate headquarters and sole printing facility since 1981. There have been a number of expansions and the facility is one of the largest web offset printing and binding facilities in North America.
Hoffman said W.P. Carey’s reputation made it “an ideal partner for monetizing this asset.”
“The current economic conditions provide an ideal time to execute this transaction,” he said, adding that Arandell will have long-term operating control of the facility and “the security of a well-capitalized, long-term net lease investor.”
The property has an assessed value of just over $11.1 million, according to Waukesha County tax records. While state real estate records indicate the 27-acre property sold for $15.8 million in late December, a spokesman for W.P. Carey confirmed the purchase price was $23 million.
W.P. Carey vice president Zachary Pasanen said the deal “incorporated a per square foot rental rate consistent with the current market while also providing an attractive yield to CPA:18 – Global.
“As a result, we were able to achieve our objective of generating solid near-term cash flows while supporting longer-term residual value,” Pasanen said.