Mesirow Acquires Unilever’s North American HQ in Englewood Cliffs, NJ for $103M

Unilever North America Headquarters, 700 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ—Mesirow Financial has acquired the Unilever North American Headquarters located in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, from its current developers OVG Real Estate and Normandy Real Estate Partners. Mesirow paid $102.6 million, or $264 per square foot of office space for the property, according to Real Capital Analytics, a proprietary research database.

OVG and Normandy are substantially redeveloping the 22.85-acre property, which includes a 321,000-square-foot office building on the property across the Hudson River from New York City. The project is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter. Unilever has a long operating history at this location, dating back to the mid-1960s, and has reaffirmed its commitment to the location by committing to an 18-year lease with multiple options to extend.

As previously reported by GlobeSt.com, at completion, Unilever’s North American Headquarters aims to be one of the most energy-efficient and technologically advanced corporate facilities on the East Coast.

“We are very pleased that our partners OVG and Normandy have concluded this deal with Mesirow to acquire 700 Sylvan Avenue and become the landlord of our North American Headquarters Campus,” says Ian Dunning, service delivery director, Unilever.  “This supports our strategy to maintain a strong presence in New Jersey and continue to attract and retain great talent across the tri-state area.”

Led by senior managing directors Garry Cohen and Douglas Barker, Mesirow Financial’s Sale-Leaseback Capital group arranged for the purchase of the facility. The acquisition financing was structured in collaboration with Mesirow Financial’s Credit Tenant Lease (CTL) and Institutional Sales and Trading groups, led by senior managing director Stephen Jacobson and managing director Nathanial Sager.

“We are ecstatic to have closed on what will become such a distinctive and iconic facility as well as having forged a new partnership with prominent organizations such as Unilever, OVG and Normandy,” says Mesirow Financial’s Garry Cohen. “This transaction is the capstone to an incredibly successful year for Mesirow’s Sale-Leaseback Capital group, where we have purchased in excess of $500 million of single tenant properties despite a challenging capital markets environment.  We believe that this transaction is the beginning of a terrific long-term relationship with Unilever.”

“We are proud of our first joint project in the US and the collaboration with Mesirow, an organization with an impressive reputation as financier of single tenant properties,” says Jan-Hein Lakeman, executive managing director at OVG Real Estate USA “We look forward to bringing our expertise on using smart technologies to create sustainable and healthy working spaces through this project and the many others to follow.”

The OVG/Normandy joint venture was led by Lakeman and Giorgios Vlamis, COO and partner of Normandy. Cushman & Wakefield acted as real estate advisor for Unilever and OVG/Normandy on the transaction, led by vice chairman David Bernhaut and senior managing director Robert Elms.