Thursday, 03/30/06 By CHAS SISK Staff Writer
The Tennessean
Investors purchase Synergy Business Park

A group of investors is buying an eight-building office park in Brentwood, wagering that it can attract tenants from what they see as an overheated market in Cool Springs.

Urdang Capital Management Inc., a Philadelphia real estate investment firm, and several local investors yesterday agreed to buy Synergy Business Park, a half-million-square-foot complex on Franklin Road. Terms were not disclosed.

The group will buy the complex from Harbor Group International, a Norfolk, Va.-based real estate company. Officials at Harbor Group and its representative, Cushman & Wakefield, could not be reached for comment.
Investors plan to market the park as a cheaper and more centralized alternative to Cool Springs.

"We feel Brentwood is an established, known entity," said John Keller, senior vice president for office marketing at ProVenture Commercial Real Estate, the firm that represented buyers.

The investors also hope to draw small companies and startups by offering opportunities to expand within the park, Keller said.

"It's one of the few places where you have eight buildings under one ownership," he said. Synergy Business Park is about 25% larger than Cummins Station downtown.

The park includes seven modern office buildings clustered around the Mooreland Mansion, a plantation house near the Old Hickory Boulevard exit on Interstate 65.

The complex was built in the early 1980s and has an occupancy rate of 85%, which falls below the market average for Cool Springs/Brentwood office space overall.

Investors plan to renovate the property, starting with $2.3 million in improvements this year.