Two Riverfront Plaza in Newark, the home of Panasonic Corp. of North America — Courtesy: SJP Properties and Matrix Development Group
By Joshua Burd
Far Eastern investors have accounted for most of the high-profile deals over the last year or so, but it was a Middle Eastern platform, KFH Capital Investment Co., that made the biggest splash in the fourth quarter of 2016.
In early December, SJP Properties and Matrix Development Group announced that they had sold the three-year-old headquarters building of Panasonic Corp. of North America in Newark. The buyer was a Kuwait-based fund that paid $165 million for the 337,500-square-foot, 12-story tower at Two Riverfront Plaza, one of the state’s newest trophy office buildings.
Arch Street Capital Advisors LLC, which advised KFH, declined to comment for this story, as did several other representatives for foreign entities. But Steven J. Pozycki, CEO of SJP Properties, was happy to tout the attention that the building received from abroad.
“When we built this trophy office building three years ago, we recognized that the Newark market was on the brink of an unprecedented transformation, and that our building would be at its forefront,” Pozycki said. “This sale reflects the unparalleled quality of this building — which resulted in tremendous interest among institutional-grade investors from all around the world — as well as Newark’s growing reputation as an established hub for global business.
“We’re extremely proud to have delivered a building that has helped to put this city on the radar of international investors.”