The industrial property at 5756 Thornwood Drive, currently home to FLIR Systems, recently sold for $2.8 million. (Courtesy image)

Once home to aerospace and defense firm Raytheon, the industrial building at 5756 Thornwood Drive in Goleta has new owners, and improvements are on the way.

The almost 21,000-square-foot building, originally developed as a six-tenant industrial and office property, was purchased by local investors for just over $2.8 million. For the last 20 years the property has been used as single-tenant research and development production facility. FLIR Commercial Vision, a maker of infrared cameras and thermography equipment and division of FLIR Systems, currently leases the space which is comprised of roughly 20 percent office and 80 percent industrial production and cleans rooms.

The sellers, which included Parrish Trust, James Knight and Alcor Enterprises, owned the property for the last 20 years and were represented in the transaction by Greg Bartholomew of Hayes Commercial Group. Bob Tuler of Radius Group represented the buyers, Richard and Candice Doolittle.

FLIR won’t be renewing its lease at the end of next year, but the new owners have plans to remodel the the building for new tenants.

Including this transaction, Goleta has seen $142 million in commercial and hotel property sales so far in 2014, which represents a 38 percent increase in dollar volume compared to the average for the prior five years, according to Hayes.