Intel sells plant for $15.1 million, will share in future income

Intel Corp. sold its Colorado Springs semiconductor manufacturing plant last week for $15.1 million, and also signed an agreement with the buyer that will allow it to benefit financially from the property’s redevelopment, El Paso County land records show.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based computer chip giant sold the 1.4 million-square-foot plant at 1575 Garden of the Gods Road last week to a partnership controlled by Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty Group. Intel helped finance the deal by carrying a five-year, $2.35 million note from the buyer. Intel bought the plant for $45.5 million in 2000 and spent hundreds of millions of dollars expanding it before halting production in 2007 and vacating the property in June.

As part of the sale, Intel and Industrial Realty agreed to share profits equally for up to 10 years from the lease or sale of the primary manufacturing building should it be leased for uses other than “warehousing, storage, packaging, distribution, food preparation and processing and other similar commercial uses, including ancillary office or retail,” according to the agreement. The profit sharing continues for the full term of any lease agreed to during the 10-year period.

Industrial Realty President Stuart Lichter said last week that the company was negotiating with two potential tenants to lease space in the complex, which will be renamed later this month. It includes both office and manufacturing space and a parking garage. He speculated that it could take “a few years” to fill the complex with a mix of tenants that likely would include up to three technology firms; up to eight office tenants; several warehouse tenants and other businesses.

Industrial Realty Group owns or manages more than 70 million square feet of office and industrial space vacated by corporations or government agencies, including a former landfill at the now-closed Lowry Air Force Base in the Denver area. The company redeveloped a former tire plant in Akron, Ohio, that now houses more than 100 companies employing 3,000 and a former Air Force base near Sacramento, Calif., that now houses 240 companies employing 14,000.
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