The loan was originated through Banco Popular and arranged by Jon Mikula, senior managing director in the Edison, NJ office, and Mike Tepedino, who holds the same title in the New York City office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler. The closing was handled by Nina Roket of the New York law firm of Olshan Grundman Frome.
The asset is the former offices and manufacturing facility of Krementz Jewelry. Located between McCarter Hwy. and Broad St. about a mile south of downtown Newark, the building had been vacant for three years when JEMB Realty bought it in 2000.
Initially, JEMB launched a makeover of the facility into a so-called "telco hotel," dubbed the New Jersey Telecom Exchange. The new owner spent a lot of money importing state-of-the-art communications, including fiber optics, and reportedly spent $8 million alone for a power substation.
But market conditions involving high-tech and telecom forced the company to launch an aggressive leasing campaign targeting a variety of office users, an effort that has nearly filled the building in the last two years. Major tenants include Affiliated Computer Services, which manages a call center for EZ-Pass in New Jersey. ACS signed into the building, which today is known simply by its street address, in the spring of 2003.
Other key tenants include the New Jersey Schools Construction Corp., which is overseeing a multi-billion-dollar statewide educational building program, and the international engineering firm, Parsons Brinkerhoff.
"At times, the asset has been challenging, requiring adjustments to best serve the needs of the market," Chalme admits.
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