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International Business Machines Corp. plans to sell its 1.9 millionsquare-foot University Research Park complex for an estimated $93 million to a Washington, D.C., real estate group.
The new owner will redevelop about half the space for multitenant use, say people familiar with the deal.
IBM occupies about half the complex and will lease that space back from the buyer, a company called The Meridian Group, real estate sources say.
The park, parts of which date to the late 1970s, contains 14 buildings on 230 acres. It's on IBM Drive, near the interchange at W.T. Harris Boulevard and interstate 85.
The property has been on the market since summer and lists for tax purposes at more than $89.2 million, deeds show.
The prospective sale is the latest in the computer giant's ongoing effort to dispose of real estate assets to focus more attention on its primary businesses, says Tom Jones, IBM spokesman in Charlotte.
"We are not in the real estate business," Jones says. He says he doesn't
know details of the negotiations with Meridian. "I'm rather certain that more...