After selling a distribution facility last fall, Crown Realty and Development has added to its portfolio in the Imperial Center business park near Research Triangle Park.

The Irvine, Calif. company paid $7.475 million for a 182,000-square-foot warehouse at 4400 Emperor Boulevard. The property is fully leased to Phoenix Telecom Solutions, which moved in in March.

The space was previously occupied by Flextronics.

The seller was Meridian Development Group of Clearwater, Fla. Meridian bought the property in May 2007 for $6.2 million.

In December 2007, Crown Realty paid about $115 million for 13 office and industrial buildings at Imperial Center business park, off Interstate 40 at Page Road.

Last fall, Crown Realty sold one of those properties -- the Essex Center, a 450,000-square-foot distribution center -- to data storage company EMC for $22.6 million.

Data storage company EMC Corp., which last month announced plans to expand its Triangle operations, has purchased a 450,000 square foot distribution center near Research Triangle Park in Durham.

The company bought the property, called Essex Center, for $22.6 million from Crown Realty and Development of Irvine, Calif. The distribution center is in the Imperial Center business park.

Crown Realty paid $113 million for 1.58 million square feet of office, flex and industrial space in Imperial Center in December 2007. Essex Center had a tax value of $19.45 million as of Jan 1.

The company said last month that it plans to add 397 jobs in the Triangle and build a $280 million data center in Durham County.

EMC, which has existing facilities in RTP and Apex, was offered more than $8 million in state and local incentives to expand its Triangle presence. Of the 397 new jobs created, about 280 are expected to be located in RTP and at Essex Center.

Sanmina-SCI, an electronics manufacturer, currently leases 315,000 square feet in Essex Center. The remaining 135,000 square feet is vacant.