Alpha Associates Takes New 120,000-SF Building

WOODBRIDGE, NJ-Alpha Associates has sold its 70,000-sf headquarters complex here in preparation for a relocation to Lakewood. For the company, which makes coated materials for the aerospace, medical and related fields, the move marks a consolidation of its local operations with those in South Carolina to a new 120,000-sf facility being done as a build-to-suit.

The buyer of the local plant, located at 2 Amboy Ave., is the Ridgewood-based Stro Cos. Both the buyer and the seller were represented by Douglas Gaffney, senior managing director in the Roseland office of the Schultz Organization. The sale price was not disclosed.

"The sale of the Woodbridge industrial complex will allow Alpha to make its growing operations more efficient by consolidating its business from Woodbridge and Charleston, SC," Gaffney says.

Construction began on the new 120,000-sf Lakewood facility, located within Lakewood Industrial Park, in late 2006 and is expected to be ready for delivery in Q3 2007. Alpha Associates has had a presence in Lakewood since late 1998 when it opened a 60,000-sf facility for its high performance coatings division.

"When we originally purchased the property in Lakewood, we did so with an eye toward the future with hopes of someday expanding our operation here and building a new R&D center," says Christopher Avallone, Alpha's chairman and CEO.

Alpha's soon-to-be-former complex here will get a new life as an industrial park. New owner Stro Cos., which owns more than a million sf of industrial facilities, will rename the complex the Woodbridge Business Campus, "re-do the whole park," according to Gaffney, and put it back on the market. Gaffney and Schultz colleague Tony Georgiev will market it as an industrial/flex complex.

"Activity has been strong as there are few high-tech lease opportunities in this submarket that can be divided as small as 5,000 sf," Gaffney tells GlobeSt.com. "Stro is initiating a major capital improvement program for the complex, and we expect tenant demand to be high."

The park's space is current being listed with industrial/flex space in a range of $7.75 per sf to $12 per sf, triple net, with most of it in the $7.75-per-sf to $9.75-per-sf range. A small portion of office space carries an asking price of $14.75 per sf, triple net.

The deals is also the second similar building sale/relocation Gaffney has been involved in recently. As reported by GlobeSt.com earlier this week, the law firm Schwartz, Simon sold its headquarters office building in Florham Park and traded up to more than double the amount of leased space in Morris Township.