Fund Reports $100 Mil in Buys in 18 Months

HACKENSACK, NJ-Founded by Norman Feinstein and Jon Hanson less than two years ago, the Hampshire 99 Fund has quickly become a major player in the ownership category in New Jersey. The numbers are impressive: Hampshire has raised more than $22 million from investors and parlayed that into a 25-property portfolio worth more than $100 million in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Midwest. Besides the capital investments in real estate, the fund has invested approximately $3.5 million in first mortgage loans.

Feinstein, a practicing attorney with extensive real estate experience, appears to have teamed up with veteran developer Hanson at the right time in this highly volatile commercial market to grab some solid properties. “The Hampshire umbrella allows us to move quickly, positioning us to acquire investment properties as they become available,” says Feinstein. He attributes the rapid success in part to “the relationship we have with a wide-ranging network of brokers.”

Feinstein serves as president of the Hampshire 99 Fund; Hanson is chairman of the fund, as well as of Hampshire Management Co., both based in Hackensack.

In New Jersey, properties that now reside in the fund’s portfolio include the landmark 175,000-sf PNC Office Building at One Garret Mountain in West Paterson, purchased for $14.7 million. Others include a new 120,000-sf Storage USA facility in Fort Lee, which opened to the public last summer; a 250,000-sf warehouse facility in Newark; a 300,000-sf warehouse in New Brunswick, currently leased to a wholesale food distribution company; and the historic Old Bernardsville Library in Bernardsville, which dates to the 18th century and is being renovated as a 10,000-sf office building.

According to Feinstein, the Fund’s strategy is to be fully invested by the first quarter of 2001. The value of the targeted properties should be about $150 million, and the group is already working on a second fund set to launch during the second quarter of 2001. The second fund will target high net worth co-investors and has a projected size of $100 million.