CAMBRIDGE — The Varak Park complex, a business park in the middle of the village, has been sold to a group of investors from Pennsylvania for $400,000.
“Our goal is to build on what is already there,” said Benjamin Long, a partner in 17 Mile Real Estate of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, which is already working on future plans. “We want to build on the past and look to the future.”
Varak Park is a 5-acre site that was once the home of the largest seed company in the world.
The Cambridge Industrial Corp. sold the park, which includes nine buildings and a 60,000-gallon water tower. The site is at 9 and 15 W. Main St.
Bo Andersson, president and chairman of the board of Flomatic Corp. in Glens Falls, was one of five people who founded Varak Park shortly after Rice Seed Co. closed. He said last year the time had come to sell the park, which by then he owned with his two sons.
Long and Mark Roscioli are the principal owners of 17 Mile, which was founded in 2008 and has focused on property development in the Philadelphia area. Long has more than 25 years of professional experience, and like Roscioli, has been involved in telecom site investment and management.
Long said one of the things that drew him to Varak Park was the telecommunications antenna on its water tower.
“That is a very stable asset,” he said. “We look for properties with a telecom connection, and that’s what caught our attention. Then we fell in love with the property and what the folks there are doing.”
Tenants in the park now include a gym, a laundromat, small manufacturers, offices and artists studios.
“It’s great that someone is investing in Varak Park,” said village Mayor Carman Bogle. “It is important that we keep moving forward in the village.”
The site, which has more than 50,000 feet of space altogether, now has more than 30 tenants, doing a wide variety of business.
“We love what they are doing there,” Long said. “We have dipped our toe in the community, and we have been talking with people who are interested in creating jobs.”
The park already has one new tenant. The new owners have given space to a robotics team from Cambridge High School, which is assembling its competition robot there.
“Who knows, maybe we will produce an award-winning robot here,” said Long.
Long said he has spoken with Bogle, who has been pushing for space for an after-school program. The initial site fell through.
OnTheMark property management will oversee the park for 17 Mile.
