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July 1, 2021

Former Sam’s Club property in Manchester sold

Photo | Town of Manchester The vacant Sam's Club at 69 Pavilions Drive in Manchester.
By Skyler Frazer, Journal Inquirer

A real estate developer has purchased the former Sam’s Club property in Manchester and plans to repurpose it for industrial use, according to the firm that helped negotiate the deal.

The former Sam’s Club building at 69 Pavilions Drive was recently purchased by the Grossman Cos. Inc. for an undisclosed price, according to Colliers International, which represented the buyer in the acquisition.

The website for the Grossman Cos. describes it as a Massachusetts-based real estate investment and lending company. It also provides brokerage and property management services for its clients.

The Sam’s Club was built in 1991 on one of the roads leading to the Shoppes at Buckland Hills mall. That business closed in 2018, and the building has been vacant since then.

The 13-acre property includes a fully air-conditioned 139,145-square-foot building with 26-foot ceiling heights. The site has more than 500 parking spaces and easy access to interstates 84 and 91.

The buyer plans to increase the number of loading docks at the building from five to 23 for a single user or up to 16 docks for two users, Colliers said.

In August 2020, the Planning and Zoning Commission agreed to amend the Comprehensive Urban Development zone regulations to allow light manufacturing at the request of Amber Properties LLC, which said it bought the property for $6.1 million in May 2020. The property is in the CUD zone.

A representative for Amber Properties told the PZC it hoped to convert the building into a multitenant  warehouse/distribution/light manufacturing facility.

Officials at the time said that Walmart, which owns Sam’s Club, places deed restrictions on properties it sells, meaning several types of businesses, such as Amazon facilities or other rival retailers, can’t go into such properties. Additionally, retail has moved away from big box stores as shoppers have moved online.

That plan didn’t come to fruition, but shortly after that, the state said it would purchase the property and use it for personal protective equipment storage during COVID-19.

The state was in negotiations to buy the property for no more than $6.8 million, but that plan fell through.

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