Keystone Buys More Property from Mack Cali

Mack-Cali Realty Corp.  has arranged to sell a 2.3-million-square-foot portfolio of 12 office properties in Northern New Jersey, New York and Connecticut to Keystone Property Group for $230.8 million. 

Pennsylvania-based Keystone and Edison, NJ-based Mack-Cali announced they have agreed to form various joint ventures under which Keystone will pay $201.7 million in cash and the balance in senior and subordinated equity. 

The tri-state transaction, the fifth deal between Keystone and Mack-Cali, extends Mack-Cali's strategy of selling suburban office properties to enter the apartment business. The deal also furthers Keystone's goal of expanding its regional commercial property footprint. 

The companies did not give an estimated closing date for the transaction, which is subject to the usual due diligence and obtaining necessary waivers or non-exercise of certain rights of first offer before the sale can close. 

"This transaction is another step forward in our strategy to redeploy capital into our multifamily platform, while participating in the upside that will be created by the repositioning of this portfolio," said Mitchell E. Hersh, president and CEO of Mack-Cali. 

Keystone has been Mack-Cali's go to buyer lately. Last year, Keystone acquired 14 office properties and three land parcels in suburban Philadelphia from Mack-Cali. That deal was followed by the JV purchase by Keystone, Mack-Cali and Parkway Corp. of 100 Independence Mall West, a 400,000-square-foot office building in Philadelphia's CBD. 

In 2012, Keystone bought Moorestown Corporate Center in Moorestown, NJ; and 16 and 18 Sentry Park West in Blue Bell, PA. 

The Mack-Cali tri-state office portfolio includes the following properties: 

--Two buildings at 555 and 565 Taxter Road in Taxter Corporate Park in Elmsford, NY, 344,563 square feet; 

--570 Taxter Road in Elmsford NY, 77,859 square feet; 

--Two buildings at 200 and 220 White Plains Road in Talleyrand Office Park in Tarrytown, NY, 175,749 square feet; 

--1717 Route 208 North in Fairlawn, NJ, 150,477 square feet; 

--30 Knightsbridge Road in Piscataway, NJ, 686,316 square feet; 

412 Mt. Kemble Road in Morris Township, NJ, 477,843 square feet; 

--Three buildings at 470, 400 and 530 Chestnut Ridge Road in Montvale, N.J., 200,444 square feet; 

--Soundview Plaza at 1266 East Main Street in Stamford, CT, 179,610 square feet. 
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