Vacant 325-Acre Motorola Property With Heliports, 4 Buildings Sells for $9.3 Million

Photo credit: TenX.com

The property sold for $9.3 million during an online auction to an unnamed bidder, according to the newspaper. Ten-X.com ran the online auction, which went live on April 19. The company marketed the property as a "state-of-the-art corporate office" that is in "move-in condition" and could "be utilized by one user or multiple tenants."

Harvard officials are hopeful the new owner will renew interest in the massive campus, which includes over 1.5-million-square-feet of space through four connected buildings, designated for manufacturing, distribution, office and administration use. The campus also includes two heliports, two on-site daycare facilities, an auditorium that can seat 500 and a cafeteria that can fit 1,100. The building has sat vacant since 2003 and the hope is that a new buyer will come on board with a plan that could spark economic activity in the small community located near the Wisconsin border, according to the Northwest Herald.

"It's progress," city administrator Dave Nelson told the Northwest Herald. "We need to move forward from the old owner and see something positive happen there."

Motorola opened the massive campus in 1996, investing $100 million and bringing 5,000 employees to work at their cellphone plant, according to the Daily Herald. The addition to Harvard brought big hopes for economic growth. But then the recession hit in 2008, Motorola split into two companies and laid off tens of thousands of employees, according to the article.

Optima International in Miami, Florida, bought the property in 2008 for $16.9 million. In 2014, a tax lien was placed on the property after the Florida company failed to pay property taxes, according to a November 2014 Northwest Herald article. The company also turned off the heat in the buildings in 2014 and stopped maintaining the property.

Optima has continued to market the property with the hopes of selling it. But finding someone to purchase the property was fruitless up until the recent online auction.

Charles Eldredge, executive director of the Harvard Economic Development Corp., told the Daily Herald there is a "short list of companies that have a need" for the large campus though the property has been considered as a site for a water park, a college, light manufacturing and even a state or federal prison.

"It's extraordinarily large, on more than 300 acres, and the buildings are larger than anything around it for miles around," Eldredge said. "Besides the economy, very few companies want a building that size."

More via TenX.com, the Northwest Herald and the Daily Herald

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