New Jersey Cheat Sheet: Hampshire, Pinnacle approved for Montclair redevelopment, iStar seeks to sell $6M Asbury Park condos… & more

Hampshire, Pinnacle get OK for Montclair plaza redevelopment
The 216,772-square-foot Lackawanna Plaza in Montclair received final municipal approvals for redevelopment this week, as announced by joint venture partners the Hampshire Companies and Pinnacle Companies. With construction already slated to begin later this year, both companies have agreed to reposition the plaza into a mixed-use complex with residential and retail components, as well as office space, according to ROI-NJ. The outlet noted that Lidl, a German supermarket chain, will anchor the development with a 28,509-square-foot grocery store. The overall redevelopment plan calls for an additional 35,714 square feet of retail, 21,032 square feet of office space and 153 residential units. Hampshire, a Morristown-based developer, said the project will involve the preservation of significant portions of the plaza, which was built in 1913. Hampshire and Pinnacle are partnering on two other projects in Montclair, where various redevelopment projects are transforming the face of the Essex County township. Both companies are slated to open the 159-room MC Hotel this spring and are currently overseeing the development of a 45,735-square-foot medical office building preleased by Hackensack Meridian Health. In a statement, Hampshire executive Robert Schmitt said the redevelopment of Lackawanna Plaza is “a chance to breathe a second life into a site that holds such a special place in a town’s history… while preserving the aspects of the site that have made it so important to Montclair for over a century.” [ROI-NJ]

Is Asbury Park ready for $6M beach condos?
Jay Sugarman, chairman and CEO of New York-based real estate investment trust iStar, is betting that he can sell $6 million condos in the sleepy beach town of Asbury Park, as noted last week by the Wall Street Journal. The city in Monmouth County, the spiritual home of rock star Bruce Springsteen, tapped iStar more than a decade ago to serve as its master developer. Since then, the company has helped carry out a massive $1 billion waterfront redevelopment across 35 acres of land, although its plans have also faced resistance from local residents. The 17-story Asbury Ocean Club, set to open this summer, will list 130 condominiums ranging from $1 million to $6 million and will feature a spa and private terraces. The site itself had been subject to a range of unsuccessful developments for decades, according to the Asbury Park Press, which noted that the former Ocean Mile Club had started construction in 1989 before being abandoned over a $41 million funding gap. In 2006, Hoboken-based Metro Homes bought the site and sought to develop the Esperanza, but halted construction the following year amid the onset of the global financial crisis. As for iStar, which last month paid $170 million to buy a Jersey City office tower from the LeFrak Organization, it also the developer behind the Asbury Hotel and Monroe Asbury Park Condos. The REIT also announced a $442.5 million deal in late March to sell a portfolio of seven cold storage properties leased to Preferred Freezer Services to an unidentified third party. [TRD]

Report: Life sciences leases tops for NJ in Q1
Life sciences companies signing a pair of leases in Morris and Somerset counties helped drive New Jersey’s office leasing market to new heights during the first quarter of 2019, according to a new report by Newmark Knight Frank. The real estate services firm noted that 578,933 square feet of office space were absorbed in the first three months of this year, far exceeding the five-year quarterly average of 85,455 square feet. Real Estate NJ reported that Celgene spinoff Celularity inked the largest office lease deal to date in the northern New Jersey submarket when it took 147,000 square feet at 170 Park Avenue in Florham Park, followed by Irish biopharmaceutical company Amarin taking 67,747 square feet at 440 Route 22 in Bridgewater. NKF said availability in northern New Jersey was its lowest in a decade at 22.2 percent, a decrease by one percentage point year-over-year. NKF reported 16 midsize leases — between 30,000 and 60,000 square feet — were leased in the first quarter, noting that they added up to 700,000 square feet of leasing activity. The NKF report cited the $170 million sale of 570 Washington Boulevard in Jersey City to iStar as having the highest purchase price per-square-foot at $472. NFK’s report said that the Newark and Meadowlands submarkets had the highest square footage under construction at 365,729 and 340,000 square feet, respectively. [Real Estate NJ]

Former United Water HQ in Harrington Park sold for nearly $7M
Utilities company Suez Water, formerly known as United Water, unloaded a 9.2-acre property in Harrington Park last week to Allegro Senior Living, according to NJBiz. Teterboro-based brokerage NAI Hanson arranged the $6.62 million deal for the 68,000-square-foot office building. Suez Water, recently in the news over an $811 million water deal in Central New Jersey, transferred its headquarters at 200 Old Hook Road to Allegro, which is owned by St. Louis-based developer the Love Companies. The former United Water headquarters was vacated in 2014 and sits in the middle of a 64-acre conservation tract in the Oradell Reservoir on the Hackensack River. Allegro said it and its joint venture partner United Way have received approvals to reposition the property into a senior living center that it expects to open for occupancy in fall 2020. Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Wohlsen Construction has been selected by Allegro as general contractor for the site, which will include 92 assisted living units and 83 senior independent living apartments, as well as a penthouse pub, salon, spa and saltwater swimming pool, according to Senior Housing News. If fully developed, the senior community will be the first project in New Jersey for the Love Companies, which operates 21 facilities in Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky. [NJBiz]

Colony Industrial doubles down on NJ industrial space
An affiliate of Colony Capital, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm founded by billionaire Thomas Barrack Jr., closed on a two-property acquisition last week that included a warehouse in Las Vegas and a 271,176-square-foot industrial property at 100 Performance Drive in Mahwah. According to GlobeSt, power tools manufacturer Snow Joe has fully leased the building, which was constructed in 2018. Real Estate NJ reported that the Mahwah property being bought by Colony Industrial for an undisclosed sum is the last in an 11-building national portfolio that the firm began to acquire last year. The outlet noted that Englewood-based industrial landlord the Sitex Group built and delivered the building after the redevelopment of Sharp Electronics’ former North American headquarters on the site. CBRE Group’s Brian Fiumara, Michael Hines and Brad Ruppel brokered the transaction, which brings Colony Industrial’s holdings in northern New Jersey to 910,857 square feet. Colony Industrial’s parent paid $77 million last year to buy 10 light industrial facilities in New Jersey totaling 639,681 square feet. As reported by The Real Deal in March, Colony Capital just completed another $1.2 billion deal comprising 54 industrial properties across the country. [GlobeSt]

Retail still lives amid Jersey City’s development boom
The Rivet, one of the newest luxury apartment developments in Jersey City, unveiled this week ground-floor leases with five retailers totaling 9,500 square feet, ROI-NJ reported. The Hampshire Companies, Claremont Companies and Morristown-based Circle Squared Alternative Investments are jointly developing the property at 23 University Place, which has 163 luxury rental apartments ranging from about $1,600 to $3,000 per month. The new retail tenants at the Rivet include a Five Guys restaurant, Carvel ice cream, a pharmacy, a nail salon and a health care center, as noted by NJBiz. On the other side of town, Jersey City’s Harborside District recently welcomed the opening of a new food hall called District Kitchen that will be home to 13 different vendors. The complex is owned by Jersey City-based developer Mack-Cali Realty, which recently sold off a nearly $500 million portfolio to focus on its Garden State holdings. Local real estate website JerseyDigs noted this week that a Sweetberry Bowls cafe has set up shop in Jersey City’s Newport Tower. The Real Deal reported in February on the rush of developers undertaking massive residential projects in Jersey City. [ROI-NJ]

Kislak to market $15M luxury rental community in Essex County
Woodbridge-based brokerage Kislak announced last week that it had been chosen as the exclusive sales agent for a $14.9 million luxury rental complex in Fairfield, NJBiz reported. The property, Magnolia Lane Luxury Apartments, was developed in 2018 and consists of a 34-unit townhouse complex on 2.66 acres. The new rental community at 60 Passaic Avenue is located 3.5 miles from the Little Falls and Mountain View-Wayne New Jersey Transit stations. Joni Sweetwood, an executive vice president at Kislak, will head up marketing efforts for the property, which is owned by Piscataway-based SK Realty & Development. Magnolia Lane has one- and two-bedroom units ranging from $2,250 to $3,200 per month and includes four low-to-moderate income rental apartments, according to Princeton-based affordable housing services firm Piazza & Associates. U.S. Census Bureau data shows that the median gross rent in Fairfield reached roughly $1,900 between 2013 and 2017, a time period in which median household income stood at $110,303. [NJBiz]