75 Commerce Drive in Allendale — Courtesy: Avison Young
By Joshua Burd
The owners of a 114,200-square-foot flex industrial building in Bergen County have leased up the property and refinanced for $21.1 million, following a series of transactions arranged by Avison Young.
The real estate services firm announced that it represented Red Pine Capital Partners and Double Z Management in the transactions at 75 Commerce Drive in Allendale, where two tenants recently leased more than 70,000 square feet. Avison Young is also providing project management services for one of the tenants, Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions, as it builds out its new headquarters at the property.
The activity comes after the departure of the building’s largest tenant earlier this year, Avison Young said in a news release. Marc Krieger, a senior vice president in the firm’s brokerage services group, represented ownership in backfilling the space in less than four months, inking long-term leases with Hitachi and Telemetrics Inc.
The leasing effort called for converting what had been a single-tenant space, which resulted in Red Pine and Double Z building a new separate entrance, splitting the electrical and mechanical systems and making other improvements, the news release said. The transactions brought the Allendale Corporate Center property to 100 percent occupancy.
“Without Marc Krieger, we would not have had the ability to transform this asset over a period of years,” said Michael K. Federman, Red Pine’s managing partner. “Marc rolled up his sleeves and treated our asset as his own, managing a team of Avison Young professionals in a number of different disciplines.”
An Avison Young team led by George Gnad, principal in the firm’s debt and equity group in Morristown, subsequently negotiated the $21.1 million loan on behalf of ownership — touting the credit worthiness of the tenants, the strength of the sponsor, the length of the leases and the scope of the capital improvements. Potomac Business Services, which is a syndicate of credit unions, originated the financing.
“When our initial lending prospect ultimately did not have the wherewithal to close our loan, George Gnad pushed even harder to find a solution,” said Nick Rizzo, who leads Double Z Management. “He knows his business well and helped us navigate a number of difficult issues.”
Krieger also tapped Avison Young’s project management and construction management service lines during the pre-leasing and post-leasing phases, the news release said. AY Principals Tom Walsh and John Mercurio oversaw the improvements on behalf of the Red Pine Capital Partners venture and are now assisting Hitachi with its new space.
The life sciences company is now setting up its North American executive headquarters on the second floor of the property and will use the first level for cutting-edge cellular therapeutic research and development.
