A joint venture of Vision Properties and The Birch Group has acquired a trophy New Jersey office property.
JLL Capital Markets announced it brokered the sale of 180 Park Avenue, a three-story, Class A office building totaling 228,000 s/f in Florham Park.
The firm did not disclose the sale price, but public records note the property was acquired by Wells REIT – now the Columbia Property Trust – for $78.4 million in 2004. It was later sold to Lone Star Funds of Dallas, according to CoStar.
Built in 2001, the property has been “institutionally maintained,” according to JLL, and features a recently renovated atrium lobby with coffee bar, full-service cafeteria, fitness center, common area conference room, tenant lounge, outdoor patio seating and covered executive parking.
JLL represented the seller and procured the buyers, making their second joint acquisition following 350 & 360 Mt. Kemble Avenue in Morristown, NJ.
JLL Capital Markets also arranged $30.01 million in financing the acquisition, placing a three-year, floating-rate acquisition loan through CBRE Global Investors.
According to Mark Meisner, principal of The Birch Group, “180 Park Avenue is one of the highest quality assets in the submarket and current ownership has done a phenomenal job upgrading the building to meet the needs of today’s corporations.”
David Milewski of Vision Properties added, “We are very excited to add this asset to our growing portfolio with The Birch Group and emulate the success we achieved at the Mt. Kemble property. We will be aggressively implementing our business plan and further differentiate the asset from its competitive set.”
The property is located on a 26.6-acre site at 180 Park Avenue within The Green at Florham Park, a 268-acre master planned development that is home to Summit Medical Group, MD Anderson and the New York Jets, among other companies.
It is currently 75 percent leased and anchored by Maersk Inc, the world’s largest container shipping company, which utilizes the property for its headquarters.
The JLL Capital Markets team representing the seller included Senior Managing Directors Jose Cruz and Kevin O’Hearn and Senior Directors Steve Simonelli and Michael Oliver.
“We had a great response to the offering given the strong location and significant future upside,” Cruz added. “Suburban New Jersey office continues to attract significant investment capital.”
Columbia Property Trust has been selling “non-core assets” following its acquisition earlier this year of Normandy Real Estate Management. Columbia acquired the operating platform and real property interests of Normandy for $100 million in January, 2020.
