WaterRower, the Metacom Avenue-based rowing machine manufacturer, has closed on a deal to purchase the 25-acre TPI complex at 373 Market St. for $4.25 million.
WaterRower CEO Peter King said …
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WaterRower, the Metacom Avenue-based rowing machine manufacturer, has closed on a deal to purchase the 25-acre TPI complex at 373 Market St. for $4.25 million.
WaterRower CEO Peter King said company officials closed on the sale last Thursday, purchasing the property from RBS Warren LLC, a South County-based property management firm. TPI Composites is the property’s sole tenant, following the dissolution of US Watercraft last year. Mr. King said TPI will stay on at the property.
“We’re just the landlord now,” he said.
The sale is only the latest for WaterRower, which has had a busy three months. In August, company officials signed an agreement to purchase the Parker Mill for $3 million. Though that deal is not yet closed, Mr. King said he hopes to complete that soon.
As was the case with the Parker Mill, Mr. King said the purchase of the so-called TPI building came as an opportunity to gain space for WaterRower, and to also provide much-needed manufacturing space in general in Warren. The town lost tens of thousands of square feet of industrial space with the development of the former American Tourister mill into apartments, and Mr. King said something needs to fill that void.
The property covers 25 acres, with the building covering nearly 240,000 square feet of floor space.
Purchasing and rehabilitating the property “is a big job, but it will be worthwhile,” Mr. King said.
“If we can bring some quality industrial space back to Warren, we would like to. Having that open industrial space here is very important.”
For the moment, the only plans are to clean up and rehabilitate the property, which Mr. King said was not improved or adequately kept up by former owners. After that, WaterRower will use a portion of the property and will also seek to find tenants for much of the floor space there.
“Right now we’re just cleaning the place up with the view of getting some good manufacturing space in there,” he said. “It just needs some TLC. Nothing’s been done since the TPI days.”