Acorda completes move: Deals and deeds

One year after announcing plans to relocate its headquarters from Hawthorne, Acorda Therapeutics Inc. recently marked the official opening of its 138,000-square-foot office and laboratory space at the Ardsley Park life science campus in the town of Greenburgh.

The 17-year-old biotechnology company, which develops and markets drugs for people with multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders, has moved 200 employees within the county to the Ardsley campus on Route 9A. Acorda has grown from six employees when it arrived in Westchester in 1998 to about 340 associates, Dr. Ronald Cohen, founding president and CEO, said at an opening ceremony where he was joined by state, county and local officials.

Acorda”™s new landlord, San Diego-based BioMed Realty Trust Inc., last year paid $18 million to acquire the former Ciba-Geigy and Purdue Pharma campus from Astellas Pharma Inc. A Japanese pharmaceutical giant, Astellas last year stopped the relocation of Long Island-based OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. to Ardsley after acquiring OSI in a $4 billion hostile takeover in 2010. OSI in 2009 had paid $27 million for the largely vacant six building, 43-acre campus.

Acorda, one of the county”™s largest biotech employers, will receive up to $5.2 million in state income tax credits through the state Excelsior Jobs Program. The company”™s move also was aided by up to $1.15 million in sales and use tax exemptions through the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency.

Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of Empire State Development Corp., at the opening called the public and private partnership that kept the growing biotech company in New York “an example of a perfect project in so many ways. ”¦ Sometimes people talk about partnerships, but this is where you see it all come together.”

Cohen said the growth of the biotech industry in Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley in proximity to metropolitan New York”™s great academic and medical centers makes “a promising foundation on which to build a biotechnology presence in New York. But make no mistake, New York still is lagging” other biotech hubs on the East and West coasts.

Cohen said government”™s active role here in creating an environment for entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses left him “the most optimistic I have been since coming back to New York from California, where I started my company.”

 

Office designer relocates

NI Systems Inc., a designer of corporate and health care office space, will relocate its office and showroom from Bronxville to a 4,000-square-foot leased space at 500 Nepperhan Ave. in the Nepperhan Design Center in Yonkers.

The 40-year-old company will occupy space in a former Alexander Smith Carpet Mills building owned by R.J. Rose Realty L.L.C.

Broker Andy Grossman, an industrial specialist at NAI Friedland Realty Inc. in Yonkers, represented both the landlord and tenant in the deal.

The design center lease was one of five deals closed in June by Friedland Realty brokers.

In another Yonkers deal, TD Bank leased 20,000 square feet of retail space at 1808 Central Park Ave. from Fashion Postal Corp. The landlord was represented by Rick Stassa, executive vice president of Friedland”™s retail division.

Friedland brokers also reported two sales of Yonkers Avenue retail properties.

At 796-800 Yonkers Ave., Yonkers 800 L.L.C., based in New City, paid $1.01 million for a 4,825-square-foot retail block. Robin Herko, executive vice president in Friedland”™s retail division, and retail specialist David Scotto brokered the purchase deal for the tenant with the previous owner, 796-800 Yonkers Avenue L.L.C.

Herko and Scott represented both the landlord and tenant in the $750,000 sale of 1098 Yonkers Ave., an 1,800-square-foot retail property. Amundson Properties L.L.C. was the seller and 1098 Yonkers Avenue Corp. was the buyer.

In Mamaroneck, Jack Rabbit Roadside L.L.C., an emergency roadside auto service company, leased 1,700 square feet of office space at 243 Mamaroneck Road. Friedland Realty office specialist Steve Kaufman was the sole broker in the deal between landlord Clearview Cinemas and the tenant.

 

International Corporate Center at Rye

In Rye, owners of the International Corporate Center announced three lease deals with existing and new tenants at the 555 Theodore Fremd Ave. office complex.

Candlewood Investment Group L.P., a hedge fund headquartered in Manhattan, signed a five-year lease for 6,819 square feet of office space in the 171,000-square-foot property.

CapRok Capital L.L.C., a financial services firm, inked a five-year lease renewal for its 10,464-sqaure-foot headquarters.

CCC Computer Center, which provides equipment and technical support and services to educational, government and commercial clients in the tristate area, renewed its lease for 2,000 square feet in the center for five years.

The landlord team of Faros Properties L.L.C. and Gould and Co. in 2011 paid $30.3 million for the three-building International Corporate Center, built in 1990 on a 17-acre site, and this year completed extensive renovations to the property.