Baker Buys Three-Building, 397,000-SF Portfolio

Liberty Property Trust, which has a New Jersey office in Marlton, was represented in the transaction by Michael Hines and Michael Blunt of CB Richard Ellis. The duo also brought Baker Properties to Liberty as a potential buyer.

The three buildings are all located within the sprawling Pureland Industrial Park in the Bridgeport section of this South Jersey township. The largest of the three is 405 Heron Dr., a 251,000-sf, two-story building completed in 1991. The others are the 62,000-sf 515 Heron Dr., completed in 1983 and the 84,000-sf 750 Veterans Dr., which was completed in the late 1980s.

Philip King, vice president of the Pleasantville, NY-based Baker Properties, which has its Garden State office in South Brunswick notes that the Pureland Industrial Park is midway between New York and Washington, DC, so it's "a great location for flex, warehouse and distribution operations. Gloucester County recently posted the highest net absorption in the southern New Jersey market, which is putting pressure on rents."

The deal, which boosts Baker's Garden State holdings close to the two million-sf mark, is also the second acquisition the company has done since it opened its South Brunswick office last year. Earlier this year, the company picked up the 113,000-sf 333 Starke Rd. in Carlstadt, in the northern part of the state. The seller was Manhattan Products Inc., a maker of soap products, which stayed in the building as part of a sale-leaseback agreement.

"Our strategy is to acquire industrial properties in key markets in New Jersey that we believe will benefit from appreciation in the long term," says David Iacobucci, division manager for Baker in New Jersey. "We plan to aggressively pursue industrial acquisitions, including development and redevelopment opportunities, in the state."