Signature Place at 250 Johnson Road in Morris Plains — Courtesy: CBRE
By Joshua Burd
Veris Residential Inc. has sold a 197-unit luxury apartment building in Morris Plains, fetching $85 million for an asset that helped revitalize a former aging suburban office property.
Brokers with CBRE arranged the sale at 250 Johnson Road, which comes seven years after the completion of what’s known as Signature Place. They noted that the property is within a 10-minute drive of downtown Morristown, adding that Morris County is home to New Jersey’s highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies.
That helped generate interest for a building that also has amenities such as a resort-style pool, a high-end fitness center with a yoga studio, a golf simulator and a private movie theater, among others.
“We are pleased to have advised Veris Residential on the disposition of this exceptional asset,” said Jeffrey Dunne, a vice chairman with CBRE. “Signature Place benefits from its location in affluent Morris County, only a few minutes from downtown Morristown, which bodes well for the purchaser’s investment.”
Dunne, Stuart MacKenzie, Eric Apfel and Travis Langer of the firm’s institutional properties team completed the sale alongside Roland Merchant and Tom Pryor of its investment banking group. In a separate news release, Veris Residential said the deal allowed it to reduce a term loan by $80 million, coming as part of a plan to amend a credit facility and reduce its leverage.
“We are pleased to enter into this amended facility, which secures an initial improvement of 55 basis points in our corporate borrowing costs with potential to realize further savings that reflect our strengthening balance sheet,” Veris CEO Mahbod Nia said. “With an improved cost of capital and increased financial flexibility, we are well-positioned to continue executing our corporate plan to complete up to $500 million of nonstrategic asset sales and our multipronged optimization strategy to enhance value for all Veris Residential stakeholders.”
Signature Place opened in 2018 under a project by Veris’ predecessor, Mack-Cali Realty Corp., and its Roseland Residential Trust division. The building transformed one of Mack-Cali’s aging suburban office buildings, providing a blueprint for the types of redevelopment projects now seen throughout Morris County and northern New Jersey.
