85 Challenger Road in Ridgefield Park — Courtesy: The KABR Group
By Joshua Burd
The KABR Group is hailing its recently completed lease extension in Ridgefield Park with Samsung’s U.S. subsidiary, in a deal that comes 10 years after the electronics giant helped seal one of the first high-profile, post-recession turnarounds of a New Jersey office building.
The real estate investment firm on Monday announced the transaction at 85 Challenger Road, where Samsung Electronics America Inc. has extended its 235,000 square-foot lease. The deal ensures that Samsung will remain in an office park that it has called home for nearly 30 years, including a decade at its current location after its original lease with KABR.
Terms were not disclosed. In a news release, KABR noted that Samsung has deep roots in Ridgefield Park and Bergen County, with more than 1,000 employees at 85 Challenger Road and several hundred more at three nearby buildings on Challenger Road.
KABR acquired 85 Challenger in June 2009 from AIG, which had foreclosed on the property. At the time, brokers with Cushman & Wakefield touted the deal as the tristate area’s first investor purchase of a large, Class A office building after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
By December of that year, KABR announced that Samsung had leased 193,000 square feet and would relocate to the building from 105 Challenger Road. The high-profile tenant subsequently expanded inside 85 Challenger and elsewhere in Overpeck Corporate Center, where KABR now owns six buildings and two development sites.
“Samsung is a world class company and a phenomenal tenant,” said Kenneth Pasternak, KABR’s executive chairman and CEO. “Samsung’s investment within 85 Challenger Road coupled with KABR’s upgrade program have led to a transformation of the office park.
“Ten years later, we now find ourselves 99 percent leased across our approximately 850,000 square feet with strong fundamentals and rent growth trends.”
Samsung has occupied Overpeck Corporate Center since 1991. The 60-acre office park, which features its own exit on Interstate 95, is minutes from the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel and is adjacent to Bergen County’s 805-acre Overpeck County Park.
Other amenities within the complex include the AMC Ridgefield Park movie complex and a Hilton Garden Inn.
NKF: Blockbuster leases helped carry New Jersey office market in Q3
