Teradyne puts another Nashua building on the market

Teradyne Inc., parent company of Nashua-based Teradyne Connection Systems, is putting its Nashua building up for sale, along with another in North Reading, Mass.

The factory at 24 Simon St. in Nashua had manufactured connection systems and backplanes, but it has been closed for several months as the firm continues to wind down high-volume, low-tech manufacturing in the United States and move it to China and Mexico.

The company still has several buildings in Nashua, including two at 44 Simon St. that total about 240,000 square feet, and a third at 91 Northeastern Blvd. The other three Nashua locations are where Teradyne Connections Systems conducts engineering research and development, as well as more complex prototype and low-production manufacturing.

In the late 1990s and into 2000, Teradyne Connection Systems had so much demand for its products that the firm started construction of a third building in Nashua and staffed one in Hudson. After the recession set in by early 2001, there was a huge drop in demand in many high-tech businesses, which, in turn, affected Teradyne’s business as well.

The company stopped building the third plant that was under construction on Murphy Drive in Nashua and eventually sold it. The facility is now a multi-use office building, with software and a medical device companies, as well as other offices.

Teradyne also closed its Hudson plant, which remains mostly unused.

For the past four years or so, Teradyne Inc. and its Teradyne Connection Systems division have laid off hundreds of workers.

Between March 2001 and November 2002, Teradyne laid off several thousand workers, about 800 of them Connection Systems employees.

In January, Teradyne Connection Systems – saying it had to move additional manufacturing operations overseas in order to remain competitive — laid off another 250 workers, 200 of whom were located in Nashua.

The company said it would take a charge of $10.6 million for the two buildings, both of which are valued at slightly more than $5 million and are each about 80,000 square feet, according to Tom Newman, Teradyne’s vice president of communications.

The company hopes to sell the buildings by the first quarter of fiscal 2006, which ends on April 2, 2006.