$17M Takes 318,000-SF Industrial Building

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ-McMaster-Carr Supply Co. has sold 473 Ridge Rd., a 318,000-sf industrial building here, for $16.5 million. The sale price factors out to approximately $52 per sf. The buyer is Central Mills Inc., a New York City-based apparel manufacturer that will consolidate two current facilities in the region at the newly acquired property.

For McMaster-Carr, an Elmhurst, IL-based supplier of industrial materials and supplies, the sale is also part of a consolidation and, in this case, an expansion. As reported by GlobeSt.com, the company put the building up for sale in April 2006 as part of a pending move to a new 600,000-sf regional headquarters and distribution center in Washington Township. The new site, built by Matrix Development Group, will house the combined operations of the just-sold building at 473 Ridge Rd. and an adjacent 147,000-sf building at 461 Ridge Rd.

McMaster-Carr was represented by Steven H. Podolsky, principal of the Riverwoods, IL-based Podolsky NorthStar; Bob Morford of Garibaldi, Morford and Dodds Inc., Princeton; and Jerry Moore of the Garibaldi Group, Chatham. All three firms are part of Corfac International. Broker Chuck Fern of Lee & Klatskin Associates' Edison office represented Central Mills.

"We have represented McMaster-Carr for more than 40 years," Podolsky says. "We actually represented them about 25 years ago when they first acquired the land to build this facility, and we represented them in the acquisition of the 104-acre site on which now their new 600,000-sf facility stands.

On the legal side, McMaster Carr was represented in the 473 Ridge Rd. sale by Randy Perkins and Helmut Gerlack of Chicago-based Schiff Hardin. Attorneys Robert Schacter and Donald Klein of Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck of New York City and South Kearny represented Central Mills.

Built in 1981 on 28 acres, 473 Ridge Rd. was expanded in 1985 and again in 1987. The building consists of 40,000 sf of office space, and the rest warehouse.