20 Commerce Drive in Cranford — Courtesy: CBRE
By Joshua Burd
Mack-Cali Realty Corp. has sold an eight-building office portfolio in Cranford and Clark, in an $87 million sale brokered by CBRE Group.
Totaling 822,730 square feet, the buildings hug interchanges 135 and 136 of the Garden State Parkway, CBRE said in a news release. The Jersey City-based real estate investment trust sold the buildings to Signature Acquisitions, which is acquiring a 75 percent-leased portfolio and will move its headquarters to one of the properties.
The CBRE Institutional Properties team of Jeffrey Dunne, Kevin Welsh and Brian Schulz brokered the sale in conjunction with Jeremy Neuer of CBRE’s East Brunswick office, representing Mack-Cali in the sale of the Commerce Office Portfolio. The team also procured the buyer.
With its acquisition, Signature is taking over a portfolio with “a highly visible location with opportunity to increase net operating income through a strategic rebranding,” Dunne said.
In a news release, CBRE said the portfolio includes a wide range of building sizes and space configurations to accommodate various tenant and use requirements, with an average tenant size of 7,000 square feet. The buildings are less than two miles from downtown Cranford and about 2.5 miles from downtown Westfield, allowing proximity to two train stations, restaurants, hotels, retailers and residential neighborhoods.
The properties include 65 Jackson Drive and 6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 20 and 25 Commerce Drive, all in Cranford, along with 100 Walnut Ave. in Clark.
“This provides opportunity for the new owner to further differentiate the portfolio from the surrounding competition, while benefiting from stable in-place cash flow,” Welsh said in a prepared statement.
It’s the latest sale for Mack-Cali as it continues to reduce its massive office portfolio across New Jersey. The REIT has chosen to shrink its vast, spread-out footprint while doubling down in the state’s top submarkets and growing its multifamily residential platform.
HFF: Mack-Cali seeking buyer for 2.2M sq. ft. Bergen County portfolio
Mack-Cali has put other large portfolios on the market in recent months, including a 2.2 million-square-foot, nine-building offering in Bergen County and a 1.26 million-square flex portfolio in Burlington County. Last week, Vision Real Estate Partners announced it had acquired three Roseland office buildings totaling 610,000 square feet from the REIT.
