15 Corporate Place in Piscataway — Courtesy: Colliers International Group
By Joshua Burd
An investor has paid $9.1 million to acquire a 138,266-square-foot office building in Piscataway, in a deal brokered by Colliers International Group Inc.
The real estate services firm said the four-story building, 15 Corporate Place, is 98 percent leased by about 75 tenants. It identified the buyer and seller as 15 Corporate Place LLC and Corporate Place Partners LLC, respectively.
Built in 1983 and renovated in 2013, 15 Corporate Place South sits on six acres and features 40,000-square-foot floor plates, Colliers said in a news release. The recent capital improvements — including upgraded HVAC, landscaping and parking lot improvements, new carpeting, paint and LED lighting — plus an aggressive leasing program contributed to the building’s high occupancy at the time of the sale.
“With the goal of maximizing occupancy and improving net cash flow, Corporate Place Partners, LLC’s leasing strategy included signing short term leases at below market level rents, which left additional opportunity for the next investor,” said Colliers’ Jacklene Chesler, who orchestrated the sale with Matthew Brown and Jack Callahan of the firm’s Parsippany office.
“In turn, the opportunity to acquire a property with an attractive current yield and a significant amount of upside in the form of mark-to-market rent appreciation brought significant investor interest,” she said. “We conducted more than 20 tours and registered 13 bidders for the property’s live bid process.”
The property is part of Corporate Park 287, a 2.5 million-square-foot office and industrial development offering quick access to Interstate 287, the New Jersey Turnpike, Interstate 78 and the Garden State Parkway. Other corporate users in the park include Siemens AG, Nomura Securities, Barclays, Marlabs, and Verizon.
Colliers also noted the strength of a segment of the I-287 that includes Franklin Township, Middlesex, Piscataway, Somerset and South Plainfield. The region experienced positive net absorption of more than 650,000 square feet in 2016.
At year-end, the availability rate was 18.4 percent, which is down from 25.8 percent a year earlier.
“During the past two years, the Class B availability rate has dropped 900 basis points, from 24.0 percent at year-end 2014 to 15.0 percent at year-end 2016,” Chesler said. “Meanwhile rental rates over this period have remained steady around $18 per square foot. If the trend in availability rate continues, this submarket may be poised for rental rate increases going forward.”
