New owners pitch ex-Lucent HQ to Philly employers

UPDATE: Patriot Equities, a Wayne investment firm, says it will spend at least $60 million acquiring and improving 1110 American Parkway Northeast, a pair of office buildings totalling 563,000 square feet. Patriot says the site is the largest commercial office complex in the Lehigh Valley.

Patriot plans to market the site as one of the biggest properties available to business in the greater Philadelphia area (now that the Northeast Extension linking Allentown to Lansdale and Plymouth Meeting has been widened). Built in 2002 as headquarters for AT&T equipment-manufacturing spinoff Lucent Technology, the building remains home to successor companies that now own pieces of the former Lucent, including Avago Technologies and Intel Corp.

Mission Capital Advisors, with offices in New York, says it arranged $41 million in "acquisition and repositioning financing" to help pay for the acquisition and improvements. Patriot would not disclose the purchase price. The buyer says the property includes 145 acres and that the site is approved for 400,000 sf in future construction. There are two parking garages and an atrium connecting the structures. Patriot could end up spending up to $100 million, including acquisition, updating and expansion, "depending on the level of buildout," Geoffrey Gardner, the firm's chief investment officer, told me.

Seller was LSI Corp., predecessor to Avago, which is based in San Jose. Avago still occupies 110,000 sf. Intel became a tenant when it bought a business unit from Avago. Intel occupies about 130,000 sf. Patriot chief executive Erik Kolar said in a statement his firm is in talks with other potential tenants.