"This was a great middle-market offering that generated significant interest among investors in that niche," says David Bernhaut of Cushman & Wakefield's Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, who orchestrated the transaction with C&W colleague Jose Cruz. "Alfieri has acquired a quality building at a price that is significantly below replacement cost."
"This submarket is one of the strongest in the state," says Cruz of the Morris County location. "Within the context of single-digit vacancies and unabated tenant demand, office buildings in this sector are currently among the most sought-after investment opportunities."
The complex is located on five acres at 25-35 Airport Rd., adjacent to the Morris Court Airport, a general aviation facility near Morristown. At the time of sale, the asset's 100,000 sf was approximately 90% occupied, led by major tenants Plymouth Financial and Alliant Technologies.
The Charlotte, NC-based Allegiance didn't have the property in its portfolio for very long. The firm just bought it this past December for $11 million from the Rockpoint Group, holding it for just five months before going under contract in May, leading up to the just-concluded transaction.
The sale also effectively takes Allegiance out of the New Jersey office market, for now. The latest transaction follows the sale, in December 2005, of the 1.1-million-sf Atrium Corporate Campus and Campus Drive Executive Center portfolio in Somerset to LaSalle Investment Management for just under $104 million. Allegiance had acquired that portfolio just 11 months earlier, teaming with Rockpoint to buy it from the Archon Group for just under $74 million in January 2005.
The Airport Park acquisition was also linked to that Atrium/Campus Drive sale. As an extension of the sell-off, Allegiance bought Airport Park from partner Rockpoint. The multiple deals are part of Allegiance's "value-creation investment strategy to identify underperforming assets and aggressively create a comprehensive repositioning strategy," according to Chris Smith, the company's president and CEO.
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