By Joshua Burd
With two months to go until its annual gala, NAIOP New Jersey has revealed the finalists for its Deal of the Year Awards.
The commercial real estate development association on Thursday announced the two choices for each of the three award categories: the deal of the year in industrial, office and mixed-use. The winners will be unveiled at the May 11 event in the Somerset section of New Jersey, which draws one of the biggest crowds of any event in the state’s commercial real estate sector.
Industrial Deal of the Year
- Blue Apron’s 495,000-square-foot lease at Legacy Commerce Center in Linden: Duke Realty’s master-planned redevelopment of a former General Motors assembly plant helped revived an area that had lost thousands of jobs when the plant closed. In 2016, CBRE brokered the deal with Blue Apron, the fast-growing meal kit delivery service, which is now the largest tenant in the industrial park.
- A 1.24 million-square-foot lease at Cranbury Station Park in Cranbury between a major e-commerce company and a joint venture of Rockefeller Group and Alfieri LLC: Following the speculative development of a 930,000-square-foot industrial facility at the site, the joint venture inked the lease at the Class A, state-of-the-art warehouse and distribution property.
Office Deal of the Year
- The redevelopment of 700 and 800 Sylvan Ave. in Englewood Cliffs by Normandy Real Estate Partners, Unilever and OVG Real Estate: Following decades of occupancy, changing needs and an evolving sustainability mandate that threatened Unilever’s departure the complex, a series of Cushman & Wakefield-led transactions in 2016 resulted in redevelopments at both properties. One of them is Project Unify, one of the East Coast’s most energy-efficient and highly advanced corporate facilities.
- Daiichi Sankyo’s relocation to a redeveloped, 305,530-square-foot office building at 211 Mt. Airy Road in Basking Ridge: Onyx Equities and Rubenstein Partners crafted a multipart deal, allowing Daiichi Sankyo to consolidate its operations into one U.S. headquarters, while providing existing tenant, Avaya, a suitable relocation solution. From inception to signing, this deal was accomplished in 60 days, with brokerage and real estate services from Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Cresa and Cushman & Wakefield.
- A built-to-suit least for the Summit Medical Group MD Anderson Cancer Center in Florham Park: Summit Medical Group, the largest physician-owned multispecialty medical practice in the state, committed to a 130,000-square-foot, build-to-suit lease at Rockefeller Group’s The Green at Florham Park. The site will house a facility that will provide world-renowned cancer care to residents throughout northern New Jersey. Also involved in the deal are Cushman & Wakefield, Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti, Rotwein & Blake, Bohler Engineering, Vanderwell Engineering, O’Donnell & Naccarato, Nixon Peabody LLP, Stantac Consulting Services, Inc., Cannon Design, Mitchell Planning and Gilbane Building Co.
Mixed-Use Deal of the Year
- The successful sale of Hoffmann-La Roche’s 116-acre former U.S. headquarters and R&D campus in Nutley and Clifton: Prism Capital Partners and a Boston-based investment manager purchased the campus in Nutley and Clifton, with JLL securing Hackensack Meridian Health and Seton Hall University to anchor the property’s redevelopment as a preeminent mixed-use commercial location. Also involved in the deal are Fox Rothschild LLP, Real Estate Strategies Group LLC, Franzini Consulting LLC, Hackensack University Medical Center, Cushman & Wakefield, Windels Marx, Connell Foley LLP and Inglesino, Webster, Wyciskala & Taylor LLC.
- iCIMS’ 350,000-square-foot anchor lease at Bell Works in Holmdel: Once the largest single vacant commercial building in the U.S., the 2 million-square foot former Bell Labs research facility in New Jersey is being transformed by Somerset Development into Bell Works. In 2016, The Garibaldi Group, CORFAC International and CBRE brokered the lease with iCIMS, now the anchor tenant in the building.
The 30th annual gala also will honor the recipients of the 2017 Commercial Real Estate Awards. Arthur M. Greenbaum of Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis LLP will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, with JLL receiving the Impact Award and Hollister Construction Services LLC and Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co. LLC slated receive the Industry Service Awards
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