25 Deforest Ave. in Summit — Courtesy: Normandy Real Estate Partners
By Joshua Burd
Developers have brought an office building in downtown Summit to full occupancy within a year of acquiring and starting renovations on the 128,000-square-foot property.
Normandy Real Estate Partners, in conjunction with Mark Yeager of MRY Associates, announced they have inked some 60,000 square feet in new leases at 25 Deforest Ave. The largest among them are a 25,941-square-foot deal with JPMorgan Chase and a 10,960-square-foot lease with Seqirus, a vaccine company.
Normandy, which is based in Morristown, acquired the building last year in partnership with Yeager. It was the latest venture in Summit for the team, whose past acquisitions also include the 65,000-square-foot Summit Executive Center and a 32,000-square-foot office and retail project at 466 Springfield Ave.
The developers have implemented several capital improvements at 25 Deforest Ave that will be completed by late fall, Normandy said in a news release. The work includes renovating the building entrances and modernizing the lobbies, restrooms and corridors, along with installing new windows and project signage and adding a glass canopy with a brand new glass and granite storefront.
The other new tenants at the building include:
- Biopharmaceutical company DBV Technologies Inc. (9,140 square feet)
- Global investment bank Jefferies & Co. (4,782 square feet)
- Health care provider Grey Healthcare (7,192 square feet)
- Boutique investment firm Horizon Kinetics (1,498 square feet)
“Downtown Summit’s unparalleled mass transportation system and tremendous downtown amenity package makes it one of the most highly sought after office destinations in northern New Jersey,” said Paul Teti, principal of Normandy Real Estate Partners. “This location, coupled with the scheduled improvements to transform 25 Deforest Ave., into a true Class A building are attracting the highest-quality tenants.”
George Paras from Paras & Paras represented ownership on the transactions, Normandy said. Rob Donnelly Jr. of Cushman & Wakefield represented Seqirus and Andrew Wolfington of The Flynn Co. represented DBV Technologies.
Craig Eisenhardt, Chris Conklin and Abbye Suskin from JLL represented JPMorgan, while J.C. Giordano of Avison Young represented Jefferies & Co. and Nick Savage and Chris Heckman of CBRE represented Grey Healthcare.
