CBRE Picks Up 378,000-SF Assignment

PISCATAWAY, NJ-The Hampshire Cos. has picked CB Richard Ellis as the exclusive leasing agent for a seven-building office/flex portfolio totaling just under 378,000 sf here. As reported by Globest.com, Hampshire acquired the portfolio back in October for $30.2 million, or about $78 per sf, from the Syosset, NY-based Blumenfeld Development Group. The buildings were acquired for the firm’s Hampshire Partners Fund VI, a $235-million institutional real estate discretionary investment fund.

According to Deborah L. Haller, asset manager for the fund, availabilities within the portfolio currently include the entire 87,501-sf flex building at 140 Centennial Ave., which is subdivisible. The building is suitable for office, flex or light industrial use, including such special uses as schools, data centers and training space, Haller says, noting that the building “is scheduled for an extensive repositioning, including a complete demolition of its interiors and a new facade.”

Other availabilities for lease within the portfolio also include 240 Centennial, a 21,262-sf lab and R&D facility formerly occupied by Castrol BP. The building is located on a five-acre site and is expandable to double its current size, according to Haller. And 16,745 sf is currently available within the nearby 80 Kingsbridge Rd., a 31,000-sf building on a five-acre site.

“The substantial repositioning that is planned for these properties by Hampshire will increase their availability for a variety of users, we feel,” says Mindy Lissner, senior vice president at CBRE. Lissner is heading the assignment, along with first vice president Carolyn Sica and senior associate Robert Ryan. “We’re confident that we can achieve our investment objectives with it.”

Built between 1971 and 1977, the seven buildings are arrayed across 46 acres near Interstate 287 in Middlesex County. Current tenants within the portfolio include Cablevision, GE Healthcare, Rutgers R&D, Enzon Pharmaceuticals and the Gibbs School.