Heritage Properties Buys Linden Walmart Supercenter for $55M

Walmart never did open any stores in New York City, but there’s no shortage of them in neighboring suburbs.

One, a Walmart supercenter in affluent Linden, New Jersey, came in handy for a firm looking to defer capital gains taxes with a 1031 exchange.

Michael Batza’s Heritage Properties purchased the store for $55 million from Chris Maguire’s Cypress Equities and Terry Fancher and Sol Raso’s Stockbridge Capital Group. Pegasus brokered the deal.

Heritage, Cypress Equities, Stockbridge, and the buyer’s attorneys, Mark Keener and Adam Block of Gallagher Evelius & Jones, did not respond to requests for comment.

Walmart’s lease at the 186,000-square-foot building on a 14-acre lot is for 20 years. The retailer tops the Fortune 500 list with $611 billion in annual revenue.

The Linden Walmart supercenter is within 10 miles of Newark International Airport. According to Placer.ai, it received 3.7 million visitors in the last 12 months, ranking it No. 7 across the entire Walmart chain of 3,835 U.S. stores.

Walmart has failed to locate a single store in New York City, primarily because of opposition from organized labor and politicians. The company actively sought sites in the 2000s but backed off its quest last decade, instead targeting areas where fewer obstacles exist.

According to Walmart’s website, the retail giant has 82 supercenters in New York and 111 regular retail sites. The company also has 35 supercenters and 70 retail units in New Jersey.

Supercenters near New York City include one in Valley Stream, a Long Island suburb just outside Eastern Queens, and a supercenter in North Bergen, New Jersey, 10 miles from Manhattan.