The 10-acre parcel at 201 High Ridge Road in Stamford that was once the world headquarters of Waldenbooks has been sold to an affiliate of National Development of Newton, Massachusetts, for $12.44 million.

The property’s 196,000-square-foot office building was originally constructed in 1979 and expanded into a two-building campus in 1988. General Electric Capital acquired the property in 1995 and sold it 10 years later for $17 million to affiliates of Steven Wise Associates LLC. It has been vacant for the past four years.

National Development is teaming with Epoch Senior Living to redevelop the property into a 150-unit independent and assisted living senior housing community to be known as Waterstone on High Ridge. Approximately 110,000 square feet of the existing building will be razed to accommodate these plans. Stephen Wise Associates stated that it would reposition the remaining building on the adjacent 6.5-acre site.

Jeffrey Dunne, Steven Bardsley, Gene Pride, Jeremy Neuer and David Gavin of CBRE’s Institutional Properties Group represented the seller in the transaction.