Technology Firm—

AFS Buys Edmond Road Property For $6.3 Million

By Andrew Gorosko

Advanced Fusion Systems, LLC, (AFS) has paid $6.3 million to buy real estate at 11 Edmond Road, where it plans a large-scale industrial redevelopment project for a vacant facility formerly occupied by Pitney-Bowes, Inc.

In a real estate transaction dated September 17, AFS purchased the property from Arbar Properties, LLC, of Westport. AFS describes itself as a Delaware limited liability company which has corporate offices in New York City.

The town clerk’s office received property sale documents on the transaction on September 22. The transaction produced $78,750 in state and town real estate conveyance taxes.

On July 15, AFS received approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission for the industrial redevelopment project. The company had earlier gained approvals for the project from the Inland Wetlands Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals.

AFS is a technology firm that plans to create a manufacturing and research and development facility at 24-acre site at 11 Edmond Road, near the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84. The vacant industrial building on the site would be expanded and put back into use.

Initially, AFS would employ about 40 people, with the firm’s employee roster eventually rising to about 250 people, according to a spokesman for the company.

AFS plans to add about 30,800 square feet of enclosed space to an existing vacant 211,282-square-foot industrial building. The firm also plans to build a 20,000-square-foot high-walled, roofless structure for a future electric substation.

It also plans to expand parking areas on the site by about 50 percent, increasing the number of vehicle spaces from 196 to 296 spaces. The new construction would add 1.8 acres of impervious surfaces to the site.

In an expanded industrial plant, AFS would manufacture high-speed electrical switching devices for very high electrical voltages. It also would make environmental cleanup equipment, sterilization gear, and x-ray laser microlithography equipment.

AFS would manufacture environmental pollution remediation equipment that is used to clean up contamination problems stemming from the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxin.

Also, AFS’s products would be used to protect the nation’s electrical power supply grid in the event of disruptive solar storms or terrorist attacks. Some of the firm’s work would be performed for the US Department of Defense.

The town’s Economic Development Commission had urged the town land use agencies to approve the industrial redevelopment project, noting that AFS would be a major property taxpayer and would employ many workers.