Investment firm buys former LSI campus, plans expansion

Aerial view of the former LSI Corp. headquarters in Hanover Township, Lehigh County. (Contributed photo)

A Wayne-based real estate investment firm has purchased the former LSI Corp. headquarters off Route 22 in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

Patriot Equities LP did not disclose the sale price for the approximately 600,000 square feet of office space.

However, Mission Capital Advisors of Allentown said that its Debt & Equity Finance Group arranged $41 million to finance Patriot's purchase of the property.

The property includes two Class A office buildings connected by a glass atrium on about 145 acres.

The building became available when LSI Corp. was purchased by Avago Technologies, which is headquartered in San Jose, Calif.

“This was LSI’s global headquarters and that was one of the things that attracted us to the property, was the quality of the construction as a headquarters,” said Geof Gardner, chief investment officer for Patriot.

Gardner said that while Avago kept many employees on at the site, it had its own headquarters and didn’t need as much space. Patriot leased back approximately 110,000 square feet to Avago for the employees there.

Also, Intel recently acquired a business unit from Avago, and Patriot was able to retain Intel as a tenant in the building with a new 80,000-square-foot long-term lease in addition to the approximately 50,000 square feet Intel already occupies on the campus.

Gardner said Patriot is in talks with a number of potential large tenants for the remainder of the space.

He said there are approvals in place to build an additional 400,000 square feet of office space, so the office campus will be growing in the near future.

Those plans are still in development.

Patriot Equities is also set to invest approximately $7 million in capital improvements, including renovations to the lobby and common areas.

Patriot hired CBRE to provide ongoing property management services at the location.

Source: LVB.com