Framingham-based developer Atlantic Management and VMD Cos. of North Andover have acquired New England Confectionary Co.’s 50-acre headquarters in Revere, the candy manufacturer’s home since 2003, for $54.6 million.
The joint venture sought to acquire the property because of its size and proximity to Boston, said Joseph Zink, CEO of Atlantic Management. They plan to meet with Revere officials to discuss future plans, he said.
“We just thought it was a good long-term investment,” Zink said. “We’ve had conversations (with NECCO) for a while.”
NECCO, manufacturer of candy lines including its namesake wafers, Sweethearts and Clark bars, relocated from Cambridge to the 800,000-square-foot facility on American Legion Highway in 2003. NECCO executives did not return messages. NECCO has signed a lease for the Revere property that expires on Aug. 31, 2018, according to a filing at the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds.
The three parcels at 101-135 American Legion Highway are on the edge of an emerging transit-driven development cluster. Two apartment complexes containing 424 units have been built in the first phase of a 1.4-million-square-foot mixed-use development called Waterfront Square on former MBTA parking lots next to the MBTA’s Wonderland station.
Atlantic Management has experience redeveloping large commercial parcels into mixed-use projects.
In 2011, it acquired the 110-acre Hewlett Packard campus in Marlborough for $8.7 million and later landed anchor tenants Quest Diagnostics and GE Health Care Life Sciences. The property added a 350-unit AvalonBay Communities apartment complex and 163-room Hilton Garden Inn along with new retail space, and Whole Foods Market leased 50,000 square feet in January for its regional headquarters in a relocation from Cambridge.
Private equity firm American Capital acquired NECCO in 2007. In January, American Capital completed a merger with Ares Capital Corp.
Loancore Capital Credit REIT LLC provided $69.6 million in financing for the Revere transactions.
This story has been updated since it was originally published to include comments from Atlantic Management.
