Warren Corporate Center in Warren — Courtesy: JLL
(Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information from JLL, which brokered the sale.)
By Joshua Burd
An investment group has purchased a two-building, 316,000-square-foot office portfolio in Warren for more than $150 million, in a transaction arranged by JLL.
The lender in the deal, New York Life Real Estate Investors, said it provided a $100.59 million mortgage to a partnership managed by the Mirabaud Group, an international banking entity based in Geneva, Switzerland, in the transaction at 100 and 200 Warren Corporate Center Drive. The five-year, fixed-rate loan is supporting the borrower’s acquisition of two buildings that are fully leased and part of a newly upgraded, 176-acre campus off Interstate 78.
JLL marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a joint venture between affiliates of Rubenstein Partners LP and Vision Real Estate Partners, while also securing the acquisition loan. Miami-based Exan Capital spearheaded the acquisition for Mirabaud Group.
“We are pleased to continue our lending relationship with Mirabaud Group and provide acquisition financing on this high-quality asset located directly off I-78 in central New Jersey with stable long-term cash flows,” said Scott Ingham, a senior director in New York Life Real Estate Investors’ Northeast regional office.
The two properties, which sit within a five-building, 820,000-square-foot campus, are leased to Everest Reinsurance Co. as part of a transaction announced in mid-2019. Each is a four-story, 157,543-square-foot structure, with covered parking and access to the recently built Warren Hill amenity building that features a high-end fitness center, a cafeteria, a basketball court and a conference area.
Vision Real Estate and Rubenstein owned the buildings at the time of the lease after having acquired the campus in 2016 for $136 million. The status of the other three buildings was not immediately clear Thursday.
“Warren Corporate Center generated tremendous investor interest given the high demand for single-tenant credit properties from both domestic and foreign investors,” said JLL’s Kevin O’Hearn, who brokered the $150.25 million sale alongside fellow senior managing directors Jaime Fink and Jose Cruz.
Meantime, JLL Director Lucas Borges, Senior Director Michael Johnson and Director Matthew Pizzolato led the financing efforts on behalf of the buyers.
“Warren Corporate Center attracted a deep bench of lenders that are actively seeking high-quality, investment-grade caliber, mission critical corporate campuses such as this asset,” Borges said. “It has been a pleasure to fulfill a small role in such a key acquisition for Exan Capital and Mirabaud.”
In a separate announcement this week, New York Life noted that Exan Capital is working with the Mirabaud Group to build a portfolio of single-tenant office and industrial properties leased to investment-grade tenants in core markets throughout the U.S.
“Thanks to the JLL team we were able to acquire this property and continue with our strategy to provide Class A yielding properties to our investors,” said Ignacio Gil-Casares, a partner at Exan Capital. “The quality of the asset, the length of the lease and the credit of the tenant is the perfect fit for the current portfolio we are building-up with our partners at Mirabaud. We will continue with our aggressive plan of acquisitions of single and multi-tenant office and industrial properties during the upcoming months.”
Vision, Rubenstein ink 315,000 sq. ft. lease at repositioned Warren office park
