Matrix Puts National Products Condo Plan Up for Sale

PHILADELPHIA-Cranbury, NJ-based Matrix Development Group has put National Products East, a fully approved condo development plan in Old City, up for sale. The three-building property at N. Second and Arch Streets incorporates the facade of the 1940s Art Deco National Products Building on N. Second.

Rudyard Porter, director of the local office of Cushman & Wakefield, heads the marketing team, which also includes Joseph Verdejo and Jose Cruz, senior directors, and Andy Merin, vice chairman of the C&W office. In January 2004, Matrix and an affiliate of Red Bank, NJ-based Hovnanian Enterprises, unveiled plans for the National at Old City, a 300-unit residential development that combined new construction with conversion of existing buildings. This sale represents Matrix' portion of that plan. Porter tells GlobeSt.com, "Matrix is more involved in developing properties other than residential."

The package includes plans for a 10-story building on Arch Street, a six-story building on N. Second to rise above the Art Deco facade, and 10 three-story townhouses surrounding a courtyard behind that building. The bid deadline is Friday, April 14.

"We will present bids as they come in," Porter says. He says the projected cost of construction for a plan that includes up to 154 residential units, parking for 154 vehicles, and about 12,000 sf of ground-floor retail, is $47 million. "Marketing of condos could begin immediately, and construction could begin within a few months," Porter says. The sell-out, according to C&W's calculations, is about $90 million. Condo-buyers would be entitled to the 10-year tax abatement for new and converted residential properties.

Porter says the offer is unpriced and declined to speculate on what it might command. On condition of anonymity, a residential condo developer and marketer tells GlobeSt.com it will probably sell in the range of about $15 million.