HATFIELD — A Boston-area commercial real estate company recently bought a large warehouse building on Elm Street long occupied by C&S Wholesale Grocers as its Hatfield South site, but apparently vacant for the past few months, for $15.5 million.

FoxRock 142 Elm Realty LLC of Braintree purchased the 142 Elm St. property from ARC HR5CSMA002 LLC, also known as Inland South Hatfield Elm LLC, of Newport, Rhode Island.

That entity had been the owner since December 2006, when C&S sold the Elm Street site for $19.3 million, and its second Hatfield location, at 95 North Hatfield Road, for $37.3 million.

At the time, the sale of the Hatfield warehouses, along with one in Westfield and another in Aberdeen, Maryland, meant that C&S would be renting those spaces, rather than owning them, with leases set to expire in 2022.

Information filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that C&S would pay rents for the properties, with a yearly base rate of $4 per square foot for the 142 Elm St. site and $5.50 per square foot for the 95 North Hatfield Road site, or $1.3 million and $2.6 million per year, respectively.

Whether operations at C&S, or its 1,000 employees in Hatfield, are being affected by the latest sale is unknown, though a new food distribution warehouse opened in Connecticut last year to serve 450 Stop & Shop stores.

Select Board Chairwoman Diana Szynal said C&S typically has little interaction with her board, and she is unaware of any changes to its warehouses.

Lauren La Bruno, a spokeswoman for C&S, said the company looks for ways to create value for its customers, and to accelerate delivering best-in-class services, but otherwise can’t answer questions about its operations.

“It is a long-standing practice of C&S Wholesale Grocers not to comment on questions concerning structure changes,” LaBruno said.

An online listing for the property at 142 Elm St. shows that it contains 359,938 square feet, was built in 1968, has 23-foot ceilings and 114 parking spaces and is situated on a property of nearly 50 acres.

FoxRock’s portfolio includes properties containing more than 4 million square feet of medical, retail, office and industrial space.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>