New owners plan ‘edgy’ look for former Nestle HQ
New owners of 120 Bloomingdale Road in downtown White Plains could revive a high-end retail development on the nearly 6-acre property they acquired from a special servicer at a deep discount after its previous owner defaulted on a commercial mortgage-backed securitized (CMBS) loan.
A partnership of Caspi Development Co. in Purchase and Faros Properties, based in New York City and Boston, paid $10.5 million for the four-story, approximately 146,000-square-foot office building, the former headquarters of The Nestle Co.
Austin Corporate Properties Inc. in Rye Brook represented the buyers in the recently announced deal that closed in October.
Joshua Caspi, principal at Caspi Development, said the property had been appraised at $33 million. The building is just under 70 percent occupied, he said. Major tenants include the state Department of Labor, Byram Healthcare, Oxman Tulis Kirkpatrick Whyatt & Geiger L.L.P. and Keller Williams Realty White Plains.
Core Plus Properties L.L.C., of Stamford, Conn., in 2005 paid $27.3 million for the 120 Bloomingdale Road property. White Plains city officials in 2008 approved the Stamford developer”™s plans for The Venue, a 42,000-square-foot complex of boutique retail stores and restaurants on the site.
Core Plus Properties owed about $20.4 million on the property, county records indicate, when it was deeded in 2010 to J.E. Robert Co. Inc., of Dallas, a special servicer of CMBS loans.
The Texas company allowed city approvals for the development project to expire last year, Caspi said. “I don”™t think they had a clue as to what the asset was. Our thought was to reinstate the approvals.”
“Our focus has always been on the building itself,” Caspi added. He said the partners will spend “upwards of $1.5 million” in capital improvements that will “exponentially increase the curb appeal to a level that I don”™t think White Plains has seen for this kind of office product.”
They have hired Gallin Beeler Design Studio in Tarrytown to design a new facade for the 1950s-era building along with parking lot improvements and some interior changes. “We”™re going to reface it with something hot and give it a whole new edge,” Caspi said.
The retail development “could be a nice additional upside if it happens. I think there will be a market for it,” he said.
The partnership, 120 Bloomingdale Road L.L.C., took out a $6.25 million mortgage with New York Community Bank.