Grant Building Sells for $7M

The seller was North Central Associates LLC, an affiliate of the New York City-based Praedium Group. The deal was put together on behalf of the seller by the CB Richard Ellis New York Tri-State Investment Team, a group within CBRE headed by Jeffrey R. Dunne that specializes in the sale of investment properties in New York's suburban markets.

Known locally as "the Grant Building," the property is a value-added buy for Palisades Financial. Located near the confluence of Interstates 95 and 80 and Routes 1 and 9 at the foot of the George Washington Bridge, the building recently underwent significant capital improvements but is currently less than two-thirds occupied. The recent capital improvements were mainly focused on the building's five-story parking garage, which has a 3.76 per 1,000-sf parking ratio.

"The Grant Building is a highly visible, well-located downtown office building that is currently 63.4% occupied," confirms Dunne, who collaborated with Richard Danesi of the Saddle Brook, NJ office of CBRE on the deal. "It offers upside for the new ownership through the lease-up of the vacant space."

One plus is that the building doesn't rely on a single tenant. The roughly 32,000 sf that is currently occupied is home to a total of 14 tenants in an average of about 2,300 sf each. The occupancy "provides for a balanced lease rollover," Dunne says.

Dunne's group has generated more than $732.5 million in investment sales deals year-to-date, this coming on the heels of a 2003 that saw more than $1.1 billion in transactions. Among this year's deals was the sale of the 139,000-sf net-leased Mellon Financial Building just down the street from the Grant Building.