By Joshua Burd
A joint venture has sold a retail center on Route 17 South in Paramus for nearly $37 million, in a newly announced deal by Cushman & Wakefield.
The brokerage team represented the seller, a partnership of Acadia Realty Trust and Fortress Investment Group, in the trade of the 153,494-square-foot property about a half-mile north of Midland Avenue. The buyers, DRA Advisors and Crown Acquisitions affiliate First Mile, paid $36.8 million for what’s known as Paramus Plaza at 545 Route 17 South.
“The sale of Paramus Plaza underscores the continued investment demand for well-located, high-performing retail assets,” Cushman’s Frank DiTommaso said. “The Acadia-Fortress partnership did an excellent job transforming the original commercial property into a Class A retail center with national tenants and new ownership is excited to have entered one of the strongest retail submarkets in New Jersey. The combination of density, affluence and proximity to New York City continues to result in success across all product sectors within Paramus, a market that our Cushman & Wakefield team has extensive experience in.”
The C&W team included DiTommaso, Gary Gabriel, David Bernhaut, Andy Merin and Max Helfman in partnership with the firm’s head of retail capital markets, Mark Gilbert. Brad Domenico of Progress Capital arranged acquisition financing with Bank United on the buyers’ behalf.
As the brokers noted, First Mile and DRA were among the parties involved in the 2023 sale of a nearly 288,000-square-foot Class A office building just five miles from Paramus Plaza. The property at 61 South Paramus Road traded for $58 million in a transaction also arranged by Cushman’s local capital markets team.
Paramus Plaza was delivered fully leased to national tenants including Hobby Lobby, Marshalls, Ashley, Sketchers and a Chipotle drive-thru pad site, according to a news release. The property benefits from high traffic counts and a high average household income of $206,448 within a three-mile radius, resulting in one of the strongest retail markets in the U.S., generating more than $5 billion in annual retail sales.
