The Hartford sells seized N.C. complex for $42M

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. sold a repossessed Charlotte, N.C., office complex to a Maryland investor for $42 million cash, roughly a third of its previous value.

Beco Management in Rockville, Md., said it bought the sprawling Meridian Corporate Center in Charlotte's University City, its first property outside its home Washington-Baltimore market.

The Hartford took back the troubled 12-building office park, totaling 1.9 million square feet, last July in lieu of foreclosure. The 200-acre complex originally housed International Business Machines Corp., when the company opened in Charlotte in 1979.

Meridian had been valued at more than $150 million, Beco said. In 2008, the previous owner, an affiliate of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, defaulted on a $120 million loan it obtained to refinance the property, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.

Beco says it will set up a new division and plans to invest another $25 million to rehabilitate the property.