Harborside in Jersey City — Courtesy: Veris Residential Inc.
By Joshua Burd
Veris Residential Inc. has landed a major tenant at its flagship office campus in Jersey City, inking a 130,000-square-foot lease with the world’s largest authenticator for collectibles.
Collectors Holdings, the parent company of Professional Sports Authenticator, will use the space at Harborside 3 to quickly expand and improve upon its authentication and grading services of trading cards, tickets, autographs and other items in the fast-growing collectibles industry. The facility will serve as an East Coast location, including administrative and executive offices that will complement the firm’s longstanding headquarters in Santa Ana, California.
Zev Holzman and Christopher Marx of Savills represented the tenant in the deal, which Veris touted as Jersey City’s largest office lease since September 2020, while CBRE represented ownership. Collectors Holding is owned by an investor group that includes New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners, TCG Capital Management and Flatiron Health co-founder Nat Turner.
“We’re incredibly excited about our new space at Harborside and what it means for the evolution of our business,” said Nat Turner, CEO and executive chairman of Collectors Holdings. “Beyond the operational capacity benefits, we see this location as a central driver for our recruitment of top-tier product, tech and business talent from the New York metro area. We’re creating an exceptional workplace for the fast-growing collectibles industry as well as a more convenient option for northeast collectors looking to ship, drop-off and pickup submissions.”
Located along the Hudson River, Harborside 3 is a 10-story, 750,000-square-foot building within Veris’ 3.2 million-square-foot Harborside campus. The real estate investment trust, which recently rebranded from Mack-Cali Realty Corp., has completed a sweeping overhaul of the complex while pivoting to become a full-fledged multifamily builder and operator.
Harborside includes a large atrium with seating and event space, a food hall, a retail concourse, a Whole Foods location and other features, along with two parking garages, luxury apartments and outdoor areas such as a pedestrian plaza and a seasonal open-air food market. The campus is directly adjacent to the Exchange Place PATH station and offers an on-site NJ Transit light rail station, New York Waterway Ferry service and other mass transit options.
“We are pleased to welcome Collectors Holdings to Harborside 3,” Veris Residential CEO Mahbod Nia said. “Collectibles is an emerging industry, and we are thrilled PSA recognized the quality of our buildings, coupled with the unique live, work and play value proposition of the Harborside campus, and elected to locate here.”
In announcing the deal, Collectors Holdings said it will have a select number of staff members at the new location this year and expects its authentication and grading services at the site to be fully operational in 2023. Its existing East Coast office in Woodbridge will eventually be merged with the Jersey City facility, representing a major expansion of its current footprint.
“Opening our doors on the East Coast, at a location ideally located to several substantial population centers, will not only expand our operations, but also help to significantly boost our daily output and turnaround times,” said Kevin Lenane, PSA’s president. “We believe this development is a tremendous step forward for the collecting community as we continue to reinvest in our business and deliver the growth that’s been asked of PSA.”
Holzman, an executive managing director at Savills, added: “Harborside 3, with its desirable office space and connectivity to New York City, was the ideal opportunity for PSA’s East Coast location. We are thrilled to have been able to bring this complex transaction to finalization, and feel that Harborside campus will offer Collectors’ employees an unmatched office experience with all of the amenities sought by today’s top-tier tenant class.”
