GlobalSpec acquired by San Francisco firm, renegotiates lease in SUNY Poly's ZEN Building

December 08, 2020 - "Company News"

GlobalSpec — once one of the region's most visible tech companies — has a new owner.

San Francisco-based Compare Networks Inc. bought GlobalSpec from its previous owner, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), on July 31.

GlobalSpec, a search engine for engineers looking for parts, rose to prominence following Warburg Pincus’ $31 million investment in the company in the early 2000s. Its search engine looks through supplier catalogs for the engineering, technical, industrial, scientific and manufacturing sectors. The company also publishes e-newsletters for those sectors.

Compare Networks Inc. is a portfolio company of Main Street Capital Corporation, a publicly traded company. Compare provides life scientists, researchers, lab-based professionals, pharmaceutical professionals and health care professionals with digital tools to research, identify, and determine which products and technologies to use.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Compare will operate the division under a new company called Global Spec LLC.

Renegotiated lease at ZEN Building

GlobalSpec is based in the ZEN Building at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus in Albany. It started a 10-year lease for 30,000 square feet on the second floor on June 1, 2017, at a price of $24 per square foot, plus parking.

Following its acquisition by Compare Networks Inc. this past summer, GlobalSpec requested a change in the terms of the lease to two years with two extension options of three years each. The rent will remain the same.

The board of NY Creates — or the New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering and Science — approved the change Wednesday. NY Creates is a nonprofit created last year to replace Fuller Road and Fort Schuyler Management Corps. in managing SUNY Poly real estate holdings around the state.

The $191 million ZEN Building at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany opened in 2016 at the edge of the $20 billion SUNY Poly campus. The 356,000-square-foot building's largest tenant is CommerceHub, which leases about 50,000 square feet. Other tenants include EYP Inc., Exyte U.S. Inc and the state's Office of General Services.

GlobalSpec acquired by San Francisco firm, renegotiates lease in SUNY Poly's ZEN Building

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