April 2022
VNA Care Network Foundation, Inc. has sold its Worcester building on Thomas Street to First American Realty, Inc., a Worcester-based real estate firm which abuts the VNA Care’s former office.
The $2.65-million deal closed Friday, according to William Kelleher, a principal at Worcester-based Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates, Inc. who brokered the deal.
VNA Care is a nonprofit home health care, palliative care, and hospice provider with locations throughout Eastern and Central Massachusetts. It has owned the 23,000-square-foot building at 120 Thomas St. since 1988, according to the City of Worcester assessors’ database.
VNA’s decision to sell was based on a desire to downsize its office presence, said Glenn Rhuda of Mohr Partners, Inc., the national firm which represented the seller.
“They’ll certainly still have a Worcester headquarters,” said Rhuda.
The space on Thomas Street was more than VNA needed as many nurses have been working remotely since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Rhuda said. Now that First American Realty owns the property, VNA can choose to lease a smaller portion of the building or relocate entirely.
For now, VNA Care has arranged to stay in the building for a period after the sale.
First American Realty purchased the property for investment purposes, Kelleher said.
First American Realty is headquartered across the street from VNA at 100 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., where the real estate firm leases medical suites. It also owns several other commercial properties in Central Massachusetts, including retail, industrial, parking, and vacant lots.
First American is owned by Philip Shwachman, who also owns an 80-acre former mill site in the town of Hopedale.
The VNA office sold below its assessed value of $3.22 million, according to the City of Worcester assessor’s data.
By Katherine Hamilton