The transaction was arranged by Cushman & Wakefield's Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, East Rutherford. "Finding opportunities to purchase well-leased, quality assets in the region is challenging," says Gary Gabriel, executive director of C&W's CMG. "There was a very competitive field of more than 15 bidders for these assets."

The larger of the two assets is the 97,605-sf 3 Paragon Dr. Mercedes Benz of North America occupies most of that space, a total of more than 66,000 sf, in the wake of a long-term lease renewal just this past summer. The remainder of the space is currently occupied by a division of International Paper.

The other building is the nearby 102 Chestnut Ridge Rd., whose nearly 50,000 sf is entirely occupied by Pentax Precision Instruments Corp. Toys R Us had originally occupied the building, but vacated it a few years back as part of the struggling retail chain's corporate real estate alignment in the Garden State. Gale had signed Pentax to a full-building lease early last year after repositioning the asset.

"The transaction is an illustration of investor demand for quality office product in the Northern New Jersey market," Gabriel says. "By the fall of last year, 46 office sales involving nearly 16 million sf of space and $2.1 billion of investment had closed or were under contract in that market. That eclipses nine of the past 10 full years in terms of square footage and dollar value."