By Joshua Burd
Urban Edge Properties is on track to acquire an upscale retail center in Bridgewater for more than $54 million, as it continues to reshape its extensive holdings in New Jersey.
The real estate investment trust said last week that it was under contract to buy the 92,000-square-foot property at 640 Commons Way, The Village at Bridgewater Commons, reportedly from Pacific Retail Capital Partners. The deal comes as part of the seller’s plan to pay down debt from the adjacent Bridgewater Commons, according to published reports, as PRCP revamps and renovates the mall following its acquisition of the 1.2 million-square-foot complex in 2023.
Speaking during Urban Edge’s fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Jeffrey Olson said The Village at Bridgewater Commons was an attractive opportunity in an acquisition market that “is maybe as competitive as I’ve seen it.”
“There’s been a lot of increased interest in the space from institutions,” he said, according to a transcript by The Motley Fool. “There are a lot of lenders out there — the banks, the insurance companies — that are lending at very attractive rates. So the good news is that it makes our existing assets more valuable and will probably allow us to do more capital recycling than we had originally intended, because we should be able to get better cap rates on what we’re selling.
He noted that the property has a strong tenant mix that includes Chipotle, Shake Shack and Cava, as well as a health and wellness component with Summit Health.
“Finding properties at attractive valuations is hard,” Olson added. “This property that we found in Bridgewater — we’re super excited about that one.”
Pacific Retail Capital Partners, meantime, is in the midst of an interior refresh of Bridgewater Commons that it expects to complete in the second quarter of this year. That follows a series of leases to enhance the nearly 40-year-old property’s tenant lineup, with new additions including Alo Yoga, Fogo de Chão, Miniso and Pop Mart, among others.
