By Joshua Burd
Mack-Cali Realty Corp. has agreed to sell a 56-building, 3.1 million-square-foot office and flex portfolio for nearly $490 million, which it will use to pay down debt and fund its purchase of a Jersey City apartment building.
The real estate investment trust said Monday that it entered into two definitive agreements with one buyer for the sale of the properties, which span Westchester County in New York and Stamford, Connecticut. RMC Acquisition Entity LLC, an affiliate of the Robert Martin Co. LLC, is buying the portfolio for $487.5 million, with a closing slated for the second quarter.
The HFF team of Jose Cruz, Jordan Avanzato and Marc Duval represented Mack-Cali in the deal.
“The sale of our office/flex portfolio substantially completes our strategic repositioning,” Mack-Cali CEO Michael DeMarco said in a prepared statement. “Mack Cali’s evolution to a waterfront centric office and residential landlord is complete.”
The REIT will use a portion of the proceeds to repay roughly $230 million of unsecured debt, according to a news release. The sale will also fund its previously announced acquisition of Soho Lofts, a newly built, 377-unit luxury apartment in Jersey City near the Hoboken border.
With DeMarco at the helm, Mack-Cali has moved aggressively over the past four years to trim its once-vast portfolio of suburban office buildings and other commercial properties. It now focuses on office space along the Hudson waterfront and high-rent suburban submarkets such as Short Hills and Metropark, while also ramping up its luxury multifamily pipeline.
