Essex Green, 295 Prospect Avenue, West Orange, NJ

WEST ORANGE, NJ – March 7, 2016 – Clarion Partners has acquired Essex Green, a 350,000-square-foot community shopping center located in West Orange, NJ. Sources familiar with the transaction say the sale price was around slightly more than $100 million.

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a global investment manager that was not identified. Clarion purchased the asset free and clear of existing debt in a highly-competitive process, on behalf of a commingled fund. According to HFF, this is one of the largest retail sales in New Jersey in the last two years.

The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by senior managing director José Cruz, managing director Kevin O'Hearn and associate director Stephen Simonelli, with assistance from senior managing director Andrew Scandalios and managing director Chris Munley.

“Essex Green was very highly sought after, given the record grocery sales at the property combined with the upside of the available space,” Cruz said. “Grocery-anchored retail remains very high on institutional investors' lists of asset classes that they need for their funds. I will also say that we had a significant amount of private buyers show up for this offering.”

Essex Green Shopping Center is the largest community shopping center in Essex County. Ninety-six percent leased at the time of closing, the center has a mix of national, regional and local tenants, including ShopRite, Macy's Backstage, a nine-screen AMC Theatre with dine-in service, Total Wine & More, Sears Appliance/Outlet, Petco, TGI Fridays, Panera Bread, GameStop and GNC. Situated on 33.38 acres at 295 Prospect Avenue, the six-building Essex Green Shopping Center is positioned at the corner of Prospect and Rooney Circle directly off a four-way interchange with Interstate 280 (Essex Freeway). One of the most affluent parts of the state, the area is commonly referred to as “Suburban Essex” and includes the communities of Livingston, Milburn/Short Hills, Essex Fells, Glen Ridge, Montclair, Verona and Maplewood.

Correction, 3/9/2016: An earlier version of this story omitted the sale price, estimated by industry observers.

Instant Insights /

Clarion Partners Acquires Multiple-Anchor Community Shopping Center in West Orange

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