New Jersey Cheat Sheet: Jersey City office tower sells for $170M, Mack-Cali buys Metropark building amid big portfolio sale… & more

iStar buys Jersey City office building from LeFrak for $170M
The LeFrak Organization has sold the 350,000-square-foot Newport Office Center 6 at 570 Washington Boulevard in Jersey City to iStar for $170 million, sources told The Real Deal. The 10-story building is part of the 300-acre, mixed-use Newport mega-development that the LeFrak family has been working on since 1986. The sale, which is the most expensive deal for a Jersey City office tower since February of 2016, works out to about $485 per square foot. Cushman & Wakefield’s Adam Spies, Kevin Donner and H. Gary Gabriel marketed the property and negotiated the sale on behalf of LeFrak. As for iStar, the New York City-based real estate investment trust announced Monday its hire of a new chief legal officer in Douglas Heitner, most recently a real estate transactions partner at the New York-based law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres. Heitner will report to iStar CEO Jay Sugarman. He replaces vice chairman and in-house legal chief Nina Matis, who is poised to retire from iStar in July. [TRD]

Mack-Cali Realty buys Iselin office complex, sells big portfolio
Jersey City-based real estate investment trust Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, which in recent years has shaken up its leadership and embarked on a new investment strategy, is the new owner of a 271,988-square-foot office complex at 99 Wood Avenue South in Iselin, near the Metropark train station in Middlesex County. Cushman & Wakefield’s Andrew Merin, H. Gary Gabriel, David Bernhaut, Kyle Schmidt and Kubby Tischler brokered the deal for the Class A office tower, said a statement from the real estate services firm. New Jersey Business noted that the building had been owned since 2014 by Boston-based private equity firm TA Associates. The acquisition by Mack-Cali, which already owns a neighboring Iselin office property, came after the company sold a three-story, 88,910-square-foot office building at 201 Littleton Road in Morris Plains to Chopp Holdings for an undisclosed sum, as noted by GlobeSt. Mack-Cali also announced on Monday its sale of a 56-building office/flex portfolio to an affiliate of the Robert Martin Company for the aggregate sum of $487.5 million. GlobeSt reported that the latter move by Mack-Cali is part of an ongoing effort by the REIT to divest itself of properties that are either not prime office locations near the New Jersey waterfront or multifamily residential. The outlet noted that the properties being sold by Mack-Cali to Robert Martin’s RMC Acquisition Entity are in Westchester County. Mack-Cali will use a portion of the proceeds from the sale to pay down $230 million in unsecured debt. [NJBiz]

Luxury rental building set for Newark’s North Ironbound nabe
The 91-unit rental apartment complex developed by J. Gordon Gutjahr at 325 Ferry Street in Newark is preparing to open by mid-March. The luxury residences in the North Ironbound neighborhood just south of Harrison are being pitched to prospective renters as the “latest example of Newark’s revitalization,” as noted by Multihousing Pro, which cited upscale amenities such as a daily shuttle to Newark Penn Station and a PATH station in Harrison. The outlet noted that Coldwell Banker New Homes has been selected to serve as the marketing and leasing agent for the complex. One-bedroom units in the building will start renting at $1,750 per month and two-bedroom units at $2,303 per month. Real Estate NJ reported that the size of those apartments will range from 638 to 1,116 square feet. MHP noted that Gutjahr, president of Bernardsville, New Jersey-based Lancor Construction, is co-developing the property with his brother, T. Gary Gutjahr. [MHP]

Gebroe-Hammer brokers $92.9M in New Jersey multifamily sales
Livingston, New Jersey-based brokerage Gebroe-Hammer Associates announced last week that it had brokered the $17.9 million sale of a 168-unit apartment complex in Sussex County to a private investor. The deal is for the garden-style Landmark West Apartments in Newton, according to ROI-NJ. The 11-building complex at 100 Swartswood Road, which was once the subject of a long-running tax dispute, was owned by Newton West Ltd. It is comprised of one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging from 750 to 1,041 square feet, GlobeSt reported. The deal came only a few weeks after Gebroe-Hammer brokered the $75 million sale of an 18-building, 487-unit multifamily portfolio owned by Madison Hill Properties in Hudson and Bergen counties. GlobeSt reported in mid-February that Progress Capital provided $60 million in financing for that transaction, which saw a private investor take control of the properties located in the municipalities of Bergenfield, Lodi and Union City. [ROI-NJ]

Jersey City industrial building slated for loft-style condos
The Hoboken-based Manhattan Building Company plans to redevelop a Jersey City building as a 60-unit condominium. The property at 100 Paterson Plank Road, which is owned and being developed by Brass Works Urban Renewal, was converted to apartments more than a decade ago, according to Jersey Digs. The long-delayed project, branded as The Cliffs Collection, now has plans that call for loft-style residences with an amenity package focused on a “wellness lifestyle,” the outlet reported. The building itself is located at the foot of the 100 Steps, a scenic lookout that opened in 2013 and which Brass Works initially agreed to fund in return for zoning variances. Jersey Digs noted that prices for units, which range from studios to four-bedrooms offering between 500 and 2,200 square feet of space, will start at around $500,000. [Jersey Digs]

Asbury Park likely buying beach property to stop development
In a potential effort to block iStar from developing 16 townhouses on its Bradley Cove site, Asbury Park is mulling whether or not to buy the property and preserve it for open space, according to NJ.com. Development of the half-acre plot was part of the 2002 plan to rebuild the Jersey Shore city’s waterfront, of which iStar has been designated to serve as its master developer. In December, the New York City-based real estate investment trust submitted plans for a new beach club in Asbury Park. The largest penthouse in that development, known as the Asbury Ocean Club, hit the market earlier this month seeking nearly $6 million. A coalition known as Save Asbury’s Waterfront has battled iStar over its waterfront development plans in the city. Asbury Park has in the past tried to buy back the still vacant property at Bradley Cove, which is named after the city’s founder, the controversial James Bradley, but has reportedly been unable to meet iStar’s $17 million asking price. [NJ.com]