Rreef Buys 350,000-SF Shopping Center

WEST ORANGE, NJ-Rreef has acquired Essex Green Shopping Center, a 350,000-sf open-air property here. The seller was the Des Moines-based Principal Global Investors. The parties declined to release the sale price.

"Essex Green is arguably the best retail center in its immediate area," says Andrew Merin, who heads Cushman & Wakefield's Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, which orchestrated the deal with C&W colleagues David Bernhaut, Gary Gabriel and Jose Cruz. "More than two dozen bids were received for the offering. Its below-market leases, strong tenant sales and demographics made it a highly sought-after opportunity."

Built in 1957 at the intersection of Prospect Avenue and Rooney Circle, Essex Green Shopping Center was subsequently redeveloped in 1987 and expanded by approximately one-third between 1997 and 2000. More than 98% occupied at the time of sale, the property's tenant roster includes Macy's (originally a Stern's department store), a six-year-old ShopRite supermarket, Washington Mutual, Petco and General Cinema, among others.

The latest transaction marks the third time the property has been sold in the past six years. In early 2000, CIN Essex Green LP, a partnership between an affiliate of the New York-based Investcorp and Dallas-based Crow Holdings, purchased it from MONY Life Insurance Co. for a reported $42 million. While the property was in MONY's portfolio, the insurer's property management group added approximately 120,000 sf to Essex Green between 1997 and 2000, 67,000 sf of which was the ShopRite supermarket. The latter opened in July 2000.

Principal Global Investors jumped into the Essex Green picture in late 2002 when it bought the asset from Investcorp and Crow Holdings. The sale price that time around was said to be in the $53-million range.