A joint venture between Leggat McCall Properties and Dead River Properties has purchased the Ames Pond Corporate Center in Tewksbury. The two-building, 154,200-square-foot Class A office park traded for $10 million – a steep falloff from the $18.6 million it sold for in 2003.

A release from Jones Lang LaSalle, which brokered the sale, did not disclose the seller. Documents on file with the Registry of Deeds show that the property was controlled by ASB Real Estate Investments, a union pension fund manager based in Bethesda, Md.

“It’s probably the best real estate in its submarket,” said Scott Jamieson, a broker in Jones Lang LaSalle’s capital markets division. “It has led its submarket in the past 18 months in attracting tenants, and it’s a terrific buy for Leggat.”

By The Numbers

Jamieson said that the wooded site, located at the interchange of I-495 and Route 133, is positioned to potentially accept up to 150,000 square feet of additional development. The site had been permitted for expansion, but those permits have expired. Pre-construction work had run roadway and utilities out to the expansion site; building pads are not yet in the ground.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the park is 71-percent occupied, with just 8 percent of that occupancy facing lease expirations in 2010 and 2011. Since June 2007, the park has netted 100,000 square feet in new leases. The average in-place rent is $16.48.

“We think it’s a good time to be buying in the current depressed market,” said Leggat’s president, Eric Sheffels. “It was an opportune time for us to buy, at a fraction of the replacement cost.” Sheffels said that Leggat intends to hold the park long-term. He doesn’t predict rent growth in the submarket “in the foreseeable future,” but said the low purchase price precluded the need for immediate rental gains.