Ward Hill Industrial Property Loses $6 Million Value in Decade

WHAV News Staff By |

The property as it appeared during GlobalWare’s heyday.

Ward Hill industrial property, held at separate times by two high-profile, but ultimately failing enterprises, was sold last week for nearly $12 million—a third less than its previous sale price.

EIP Ward Hill LLC, associated with Equity Industrial Partners Corp. of Needham, purchased the 148 and 200 Ward Hill Ave. buildings with a combined total of 270,000 square feet on about 14 acres of land. The buildings were built in 1983 and 1999 respectively. The property had been owned by Stag II LLC since 2006 when it paid more than $18 million.

The property was once occupied by GlobalWare Solutions, a provider of supply-chain solutions for the software industry. The company sold the property to Taurus Ward Hill in 2002 for $15.3 million and leased it back. Previously, the property was home to Gividi Glass Fabrics, manufacturer of glass fine-yarn fabrics for industrial and composite use. Gividi was once the largest customer of the former Essex County Gas Co. With Massachusetts at the then-literal end of the southern-based natural gas pipelines, it was a challenge to cost-effectively meet the company’s energy needs.

In recent years, GlobalWare gradually sublet almost all of its space. In 2010, Stag II filed papers in district court to evict GlobalWare from the property and the order was granted in 2012.

GlobalWare Solution was founded in 1978 as ZBR Publications, a print shop, and changed its name in 2000. At one time the Haverhill-based company also had offices in Redwood City, Calif.; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Chennai, India; Kunshan, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Wuxi, China; Singapore; and Penang, Malaysia.

Southern Essex District Register of Deeds John O’Brien said the Commonwealth received $54,492 in excise taxes when the sale closed Friday.

2 thoughts on “Ward Hill Industrial Property Loses $6 Million Value in Decade”

  1. Our condominium, like many home values across the country, have lost a significant amount of their worth over the last 10 years. I don’t think this story should come as a surprise to anyone.

  2. I predict in less than a decade developers will request zoning changes to the Ward Hill park to convert to housing…..low income and “affordable” completing Haverhill’s quest to be a 100% bedroom and low income community. Haverhill is NOT business friendly.