Plans for The Crossings at Brick Church Station at 533 Main St. in East Orange call for 820 mixed-income apartments and more than 200,000 square feet of new commercial space anchored by ShopRite, along with structured parking for story 1,200 vehicles, a pedestrian promenade and a public plaza. — Renderings by Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners/Courtesy: Triangle Equities
(Editor’s note: This story was updated Wednesday, Nov. 30, to include new details about the financing package for The Crossings at Brick Church Station.)
By Joshua Burd
An investment group has broken ground on what’s billed as a $500 million development project in East Orange, where plans call for 820 mixed-income apartments and more than 200,000 square feet of commercial space anchored by a new supermarket.
Led by Triangle Equities, the project is redeveloping the former Brick Church Plaza shopping center on Main Street, between South Harrison and Halstread streets and just north of Interstate 280. Construction is already underway for what will be known as The Crossings at Brick Church Station, at 533 Main St., with the first of two phases slated to be complete in late 2024.
Those on hand for a ceremonial groundbreaking on Monday included Triangle Equities’ investment partners, Goldman Sachs and Basis Investment Group, along with co-developer partner Incline Capital, Gov. Phil Murphy, Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver and East Orange Mayor Ted R. Green.
“I want to thank Governor Murphy, Lt. Governor Oliver, Mayor Ted Green and City Council Chairman Christopher Awe for their support and for welcoming The Crossings at Brick Church into this great community,” said Lester Petracca, president of Triangle Equities. “We also appreciate the tremendous support that we received from our investment partners Goldman Sachs and Basis Investment Group, illustrating what it takes to make these challenging projects become a reality. We are looking forward to building a project that we believe will be a catalyst for the redevelopment of this area and provide amenities to a deserving community.”
March Associates Construction is the construction manager and general contractor for the ground-up project — designed by Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners — which will include a nine-story building, a five-story building and a seven-story parking garage with 1,200 spaces. The full site will comprise 200,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and commercial space, including ShopRite as its anchor tenant to continue the grocer’s longtime presence at the former Brick Church Plaza, with plans also calling for a pedestrian promenade and a public plaza.
Residents, visitors and commercial tenants will benefit from the site’s highway access and its location adjacent to NJ Transit’s Brick Church station.
“New Jersey is the state of opportunity, and it’s fitting that this new development will open here in East Orange, one of our state’s Opportunity Zones,” Murphy said, referencing a federal tax incentive program focused on underserved census tracts. “The Crossings at Brick Church Station will provide residents the opportunity to find an affordable place to call home and a good-paying new job, as well as access to even greater healthy foods options and public transportation options. I applaud the leadership of Triangle Equities, and the partnership of the City of East Orange, Basis Investment Group, Goldman Sachs, and PNC for making this historic investment in the community of East Orange.”
JLL’s Jose Cruz and Steve Simonelli brokered the sale of the property to the development team and subsequently arranged joint venture equity alongside Rob Hinckley, Jeff Julien Nicco Lupo and Ryan Robertson. Max Herzog, Geoff Goldstein and Matt Pizzolato, also of JLL, arranged financing.
Triangle Equities said Monday that it has preleased more than 85 percent of the retail space in the first phase. That bodes well for what Green, a former councilman and the mayor since 2018, called “one of the largest and most transformative projects that East Orange has ever seen.”
“The Crossings at Brick Church Station will spark vibrancy in our city and help us to leverage our existing assets — diversity, proximity and convenience — with modern amenities designed to increase the livability of our community and revitalize our local economy,” Green said. “The Crossings, right in the heart of our Transit Village, will bring the ‘cityness’ back to East Orange, raise our property values, spur additional investment and essentially improve the city’s overall fiscal and social health.
“The ripple effect of this project will certainly be felt by future generations as it opens up doors for more jobs, entrepreneurship, quality mixed-income housing, new retail and shopping, and a common place for people to meet and experience the best of East Orange.”
PNC Bank was also on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony. Petracca, meantime, noted that the project is leveraging New Market Tax Credits, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Redevelopment Area Bonds and other financing tools as part of a creative capital stack.
“We believe this project will be a catalyst for the transformation of the Main Street corridor in tandem with revitalization of the Brick Church Train Station and other main street revitalization efforts by the city,” he said. “We are thrilled to work on this transformative project with such great partners.”
Petracca also praised Shoprite, the development’s retail anchor.
“We couldn’t be happier than to partner with Shoprite at the Crossings at Brick Church,” he said. “As the grocery anchor, the new Shoprite signed a long-term lease, giving additional confidence to the community that we are long-term investors who want to see this project, and the entire neighborhood, thrive for years to come.”
In a follow-up announcement, the development team said it has finalized a complex financing package for phase one totaling roughly $317 million. Funding for the retail and site infrastructure will include:
- A $17 million loan from the Reinvestment Fund in partnership with the Low-Income Investment Fund and BlueHub Capital
- $15 million in New Markets Tax Credit equity invested by PNC Bank
- $10.5 million in financing from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank
- A $1.65 million Series 2022A Redevelopment Area Bond
- $24.6 million in direct equity from the Urban Investment Group within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Basis Investment Group, Triangle Equities and Incline Capital.
In addition, the project will benefit from $52 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocations from eight community development enterprises: PNC Bank, DV Community Investment, Urban Action Community Development, Enterprise Community Partners, New Jersey Community Capital, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Mid-City Community CDE and the Reinvestment Fund. Dudley Ventures provided advisory services for what Triangle described as one of the largest NMTC closings in the program history.
“The Crossings at Brick Church Station is a terrific example of the progress that can be achieved when public and private resources come together to strengthen the economic vitality of our communities,” said Enrico Della Corna, PNC’s regional president of New Jersey. “PNC, as a national main street bank, is committed to delivering our expertise and capabilities — from real estate finance to public finance to tax credit solutions — that help advance economic equality and enable all to move forward financially.”
The residential portion of the project will be financed with:
- A $63.8 million construction loan from PNC Bank
- A $24.35 million bridge loan from PNC Bank
- A $14.6 million Low-Income Housing Tax Credit bridge loan from PNC Bank
- A $2 million loan from the city of East Orange
- $24.35 million in Redevelopment Area Bonds issued by the city of East Orange
- $17.6 million of LIHTC equity invested by PNC Bank
- $46 million in direct equity from Goldman Sachs, Basis Investment Group, Triangle Equities, and Incline Capital.
The developers added that the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency is supporting the project with a $20 million Low Income Tax Credit allocation. Fannie Mae, through PNC as DUS Lender, provided a forward commitment to provide an $88.2 million mortgage-based security at the end of the construction and lease-up period, while Stifel Investment Bank sold an equivalent amount of Multifamily Taxable Mortgage-Backed Securities, which are secured by U.S. Treasuries until Fannie Mae delivers the MBS.
“Congratulations to the City of East Orange and Triangle Equities,” said Peter Czajkowski, the Director of Public Finance at Stifel. “This is an important development for the city, and we are excited for its residents and the broader community. The financing is a credit to the hard work of many different people, and we are very proud of the value we brought to the team.”
