ATAPCO PROPERTIES ENTERS INTO CONTRACT TO BUY BALTIMORE SUN BUILDING

Baltimore, MD- Local real estate firm Atapco Properties has entered into a deal to acquire the Baltimore Sun headquarters building at 501 N. Calvert St.

Russell Powell, vice president of acquisitions for Atapco, said the company went under contract for the 450,000-square-foot building within the last two weeks. Powell declined to disclose a timeline for when the company plans to close on the sale or what its plans are for the property. Atapco is currently doing due diligence on the building, he said.

The building and an adjacent garage are owned by Chicago-based Tribune Media. A spokesman for Tribune declined to comment on the pending sale.

Developer Mark Sapperstein pulled out of a deal in September to acquire the property. In the time since, Powell said it’s his understanding that other firms had also expressed interest in the site.

Atapco Properties was formed in 1998 when the Blaustein family, founders of the American Oil Co., split into three groups. Atapco Properties has mainly done new development.

Tribune put the Sun building on the market in March. State records show The Sun building was purchased by Tribune in 2008 for $15.2 million. The Sun, which moved into the space in 1950, occupies a portion of the building.

In 2014, Tribune Media sold The Sun’s printing plant in Port Covington for $46.5 million to Sagamore Development, the real estate firm owned by Under Armour Inc. CEO Kevin Plank. The Sun is leasing the building back from Sagamore.

Originally posted by Ryan Sharrow in the Baltimore Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2016/12/08/atapco-properties-enters-into-contract-to-buy.html