Friday, June 26, 2020

Portfolio of 7 buildings sells for $14.9M in NJ

Michelle Caffrey Reporter
Philadelphia Business Journal

A seven-building portfolio of single-story office buildings in Mount Laurel sold for $14.85 million to a buyer who’s now amassed more than 400,000 square feet of single-story office space in the region. The sale comes as those types of properties, which often have private entrances, could see increased demand from employers looking to avoid shared common areas like lobbies and elevators to minimize Covid-19 risk. 

The seven buildings total 244,000 square feet of space and are located at 11000, 12000, 14000, 15000, 17000 and 18000 Commerce Parkway in the Greentree North Corporate Center, as well as 1001 Briggs Rd. in Cambridge Crossing. The buyer, Brooklyn-based Golden Gate Capital, is renaming the Greentree North Center to the Mount Laurel Commerce Center. 

The seller was Connecticut-based real estate investment firm Greenfield Partners, according to public property records. The most recent sale is the last piece of a larger South Jersey office portfolio it acquired from Liberty Property Trust in 2014 and has slowly sold off over the past three years, said 

Most of the properties Greenfield has sold off have been 100% leased out, or close to it, including a two-building portfolio of single-story offices at 1015 and 1025 Briggs Rd. in Mount Laurel it sold for $13.7 million last fall. 

The Greentree and Cambridge Crossing portfolio, however, is about 50% occupied on average, with some buildings fully leased and others completely vacant. One of the largest tenants is applicant screening firm Vertical Screen.

Since the properties were the last ones Greenfield still held in the region, he said they were willing to sell now instead of waiting until they’re fully leased. 

The property was marketed and buyer was identified before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but the deal took a little while longer to complete because of uncertainty in the market, Marzullo said. Golden Gate was able to secure credit union financing for the fully-leased properties, but bridge financing for the value-add portion fell through as Covid-19 shook up financial markets. Once CBRE was able to help the buyer secure another loan from a new lender, Marzullo said, they were back on track. 

“We had a seller and a buyer who were very committed to selling and getting to closing, and we finally got it there,” he said. 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.