ING Buys Metropolitan Center for $120M

Sean Ryan is associate editor of Real Estate New Jersey.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ-New York City-based ING Clarion has purchased Metropolitan Center from CB Richard Ellis Investors for $119.5 million, or $282.51 per sf. The 423,000-sf, 15-story building is 92% leased.

Cushman and Wakefield’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group brokered the deal; the group’s office is in the building. Also known by its address at One Meadowlands Plaza, the site sits off both Exit 16W of the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 3. The Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel and Conference Center is nearby, as is all of the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Future developments next to the property include the $1.4-billion Xanadu retail center, the new football stadium for the Giants and Jets, and the Orchard Park residential development.

CBRE had invested more than $3.5 million in capital improvements to the property over the past three years since acquiring the building, then 87% leased, from a MetLife portfolio. Major tenants include the aforementioned C&W, P&O Nedlloyd, Hudson News and the newly signed Aegis Insurance, which took 93,000 sf.

“The Meadowlands is one of Northern New Jersey’s largest and best located office markets,” says Andrew Merin, executive vice president of the capital markets group. “Within it, Metropolitan Center is the largest and most prominent class A office building, and the property consistently achieves the highest rental rates in the submarket by virtue of its quality, location and amenity package.”