Joy Construction, Maddd Equities land $34M loan for Newark building

Joy Construction and Maddd Equities picked up nearly $34 million in funding to recapitalize their office building in Downtown Newark, according to sources familiar with the deal.

The money, issued by French bank Natixis, is a five-year CMBS loan, and Joy and Maddd will use it to recapitalize the deal. They purchased the Newark property at 765 Broad Street in 2016 for $10.5 million, and other investors include Drew Katz and Newmark Knight Frank’s Justin DiMare.

The building spans 200,000 square feet and stands seven stories tall. It was built by Prudential in 1957 and recently became the new headquarters for Newark Public Schools.

Office rents in Newark average around $29 a square foot, and developers have about 400,000 square feet of office space under construction, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s first quarter market report. The vacancy rate was pegged at about 16.9 percent.

The city, New Jersey’s largest, has seen a number of efforts at revitalization recently, including a $50 million investment in three of the city’s four Gateway Center buildings from Prudential Financial, Garrison Investment Group, Onyx Equities, Taconic Capital Advisors and Axonic Capital. Actress and singer Queen Latifah is also building an affordable housing project in Newark consisting of 20 townhouses and 76 apartment units.