Details of the deal were not released. The shopping center is valued at $26 million, according to UBP officials, and is subject to an existing first mortgage of $11.9 million, The property was acquired from a group of local investors who originally developed the property in the mid-'90s.

"We have added another significant grocery-anchored shopping center in Northern New Jersey," confirms Willing Biddle, UBP's president. "The acquisition complements our current grocery-anchored centers located in Wayne and Emerson, and continues our expansion into that region on the state."

That grocery anchor is Pathmark, which occupies 63,433 sf. Other tenants at Ferry Plaza, which is 95% leased, include Blockbuster Video, Rainbow Stores, Dots, GNC, Carvel, Subway and Valley National Bank. "We utilized $8.7 million of the proceeds of our recent successful sale of preferred stock to complete the cash portion of our equity investment in this transaction," Biddle says. The stock sale, completed in March, involved $60 million of new Series E Senior Cumulative Preferred Stock in a private placement to WFC Holdings Corp., a holding company for Wells Fargo Bank.