The deal was arranged for Matrix by Steve Tolkach, managingprincipal of the Princeton office of Newmark Knight Frank. SellerPreferred Unlimited of Conshohocken, PA was represented in-house byLarry Doyle, and by brokers from Hamilton, NJ-based NAI Fennelly.The sale price was not disclosed. Preferred Unlimited, then knownas Preferred Real Estate Investments, acquired the propertyfrom Paris-based chemical firm Rhodia Group in 2005 for a reported$35 million.

The property had served as the North American headquarterscampus for Rhodia, and the latter has maintained a smaller leasedpresence on-site in the wake of that earlier sale. Much of thespace was subsequently put on the market for lease by Preferred aspart of a multi-tenant repositioning, and availabilities at thetime of this latest sale were listed with asking prices of $22.50per square foot for office, $16.50 per square foot for flex and$7.50 a foot for flex/industrial.

And the new owner will apparently continue that repositioningprocess. "Matrix has a lot of experience in the Exit 8A market,"Tolkach says. "They have the expertise in mixed-use developmentthat will make this property a huge success over the next severalyears. In a market climate in which it's very difficult to closeeven the most typical of sale transactions, this was a good exampleof a creative buyer and seller putting together a deal that willput this property in the hands of the most logical localdeveloper/investor."