Hana Pays $305M for NJ Office Campus

Hana Asset Management, a subsidiary of Hana Financial Group, one of the largest bank holding companies in South Korea, has purchased a Class A office project in Plainsboro, New Jersey for $305 million, making it the largest single-asset sale in New Jersey to date in 2016. The 762,000 square foot complex was sold by a partnership between Ivy Equities, LCOR Inc. and Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. in a deal brokered by Cushman & Wakefield; C&W also secured financing while Goulston & Storrs advised Hana in the transaction. The acquisition is the latest in Hana's program to acquire core office properties in the metropolitan areas of major U.S. cities, such as New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston and Seattle.

"The superior investment-grade tenant and durable in-place cash flow with contractual rent steps at 800 Scudders Mill enabled us to source this noteworthy partnership as the purchasing entity," said Andrew Merin of Cushman & Wakefield's Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group. "The result – a major offshore investment in New Jersey - is a big win for the state. The transaction came with a number of challenges, including the complexity of multiple partners on both sides of the sale."

"This was indeed a complex transaction involving a foreign entity trying to understand structural considerations for financing in the U.S.," John Alascio, a managing director with C&W, said in a prepared statement. "Future funding components are always complex in terms of logistics and obtaining lender approval. It can often be easier with single-tenant financing, which this is, but in this instance, given the nature of future funding and the earn-out of space to the tenant, it was particularly challenging. Overall, we delivered the best deal in the marketplace, working around the structural concerns of both the buyer and seller."

The Class A property features nine interconnected buildings on 59 acres in the heart of the Princeton sub market, and was originally developed in 1985 for Merrill Lynch. Novo Nordisk, headquartered at the office park, currently occupies 498,000 square feet on a net lease basis with expansion rights. The pharmaceutical company has occupied the campus since 2013, when the property underwent a full redevelopment.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Harmon Cove Building Draws Over 50 Offers, Sells for $11.5M

One Harmon Plaza, a nearly 200,000-square-foot office building in Secaucus, NJ officially sold a couple of weeks ago as a group headed by Woodland Park-based Mountain Development Corp. purchased the property for $11.5 million. Mountain Development acquired the 10-story property from New Boston Fund Inc., Mountain Development President Michael Seeve said in a statement. Mountain Development bought the property with a partner, a fund managed by PCCP LLC, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm. There were more than 50 signed letters of interest before the recent sale, with 18 tours of the property and 11 firm offers made before Mountain Development's was accepted.

"One Harmon Plaza provides a solid value-add opportunity for new ownership in terms of the ability to lease up and re-position the building at competitive rents," said David Bernhaut of Cushman & Wakefield, which brokered the deal.

"The sponsor's business plan, the property's significant upside and the attractive basis drew considerable attention from a variety of institutional and private equity funds," added John Alascio of C&W's equity team.

The Jersey Journal, owned by Advance Publications, moved from its nearly 90-year-old headquarters at 30 Journal Square, Jersey City, to One Harmon Plaza in January. The newspaper relocated to the 10th floor of its new location, taking 10,000 square feet.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.