By Joshua Burd
Urban Edge Properties has sold a 232,000-square-foot Home Depot property in Union Township for $71 million, announcing the deal Wednesday as part of its quarterly earnings report.
The real estate investment trust said the transaction, which closed earlier this week, came as part of a Section 1031 like-kind exchange with a corresponding acquisition of an upscale retail center in Gambrills, Maryland. According to a listing for the Union asset, the single-tenant property houses a Home Depot Super Store and one of the retailer’s largest in the U.S., serving as a base for retail sales, storage and regional company needs on a site that backs up to Interstate 78.
Urban Edge did not disclose the buyer’s name in the transaction at 2445 Springfield Ave., though it noted that the owner assumed an outstanding $44.6 million mortgage encumbering the property. The Maryland property, Village at Waugh Chapel, is a 382,000-square-foot, grocery-anchored center within 20 miles of Washington D.C., Baltimore and Annapolis.
“Our third-quarter results reflect continued momentum in executing our strategic plan,” said Jeff Olson, Urban Edge’s chairman and CEO. “We are pleased to announce the $126 million acquisition of The Village at Waugh Chapel in Anne Arundel County, Maryland and the sale of a single-tenant Home Depot in Union, New Jersey for $71 million. Over the last year, we have acquired $552 million of high-quality retail assets in our core markets at a 7 percent capitalization rate and have sold over $425 million of noncore and single-tenant assets at a 5 percent capitalization rate.”
Urban Edge announced the deals during a report that also included multiple third-quarter transactions in New Jersey. Among them was a five-year, $31 million mortgage loan secured by its Greenbrook Commons property in Watchung, which the REIT obtained on Aug. 29, as well as a 10-year, $30 million mortgage secured by the Briarcliff Commons complex in Morris Plains that it closed two weeks later.
