The International Paper building in Tuxedo draws offers

Tuxedo — The International Paper building here — big, secluded and, most importantly, empty — is on the market and "several" buyers are interested.

The building, selling for $5.75 million, has drawn inquiries from a slew of companies spanning the mundane — corporate real estate firms — to the L.A.-esque — a breast implant practice from Colorado that would use the 50-acre site as an "augmentation and convalescence" retreat for top-dollar clients, according to town Supervisor Peter Down.

"We have several offers on the property. Written offers," said Dan Foley of the corporate real estate company Studley. "It's a rather diverse type of interests we've had in the building." (The "spa people," as Foley referred to the breast implant company, have not made an offer.)

Foley, citing normal negotiation practice, declined to say what sort of companies were looking to buy the building, which he said International Paper priced "aggressively" at $31 per square foot.

He said some asbestos has to be removed from the older parts of the building that were built in 1969, one of the few along Long Meadow Road in what is today Sterling Forest State Park.

Dolan said there had been some interest in converting the building to a school, but the idea has since been abandoned.

The 184,900-square-foot facility — part offices and labs and part warehousing and factory floor — has been mostly empty since mid-2004 when International Paper cut 3,000 jobs across the country and overhauled its product development operations.

It was only in October 2002 that the company proudly unveiled a $16 million, 30,000-square-foot addition to its Corporate Research Center. The last of the company's skeleton crew left in the past couple of months, Foley said.

Today, the building is empty and the parking lot and driveway are covered with the droppings of the only visitors: geese.