WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Sundance Vacations will soon take a short trip to its new home near the Wachovia Arena.

The company will move from its Kidder Street offices to the former state Department of Labor and Industry building on Highland Park Boulevard and rename the property The Arena Commons.

Dowd Holdings L.P. purchased the property from the Girard Estate last week for $3.25 million.

“This new building marks the latest phase in a significant investment for Sundance Vacations,” said John Dowd, company president.

Approximately $1 million will be invested in renovations. Sundance Vacations will move its corporate office into the building and will establish a new sales office there as well. The remaining 30,000 square feet will be leased.

The move will place Sundance Vacations in the “newest and most rapidly growing commercial thoroughfare in Northeastern Pennsylvania,” the company said in a press release.

The company showed an interest in the property months ago when the listing started to draw attention from prospective buyers, said Mike Detter, an associate of Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate in Scranton.

The property was on the market for approximately a year and a half. In January it was listed at $4.2 million.

“After being quiet for a while we had a lot of interest in the spring and multiple offers in the summer,” he said. “Timing’s everything in real estate.”

The property’s location and the building’s size were big selling points. The 47,000-square-foot, one-story structure is situated on the 4.66-acre site near the arena.

The building was relatively new, constructed in 1992 and had been previously home to the Labor and Industry Department’s Bureau of Disability Determination. The tenant relocated to downtown Wilkes-Barre in 2005.

Jerry Lynott, a Times Leader business writer, can be contacted at 570 829-7237.