Cofinance Begins Marketing Former HQ

CARTERET, NJ-Cofinance Inc. has begun marketing the former Pathmark headquarters at 200 Milik St. here. The company purchased the property from Lexington Realty Trust for $15 million. The building had been 100% occupied by Pathmark, which has an absolute net lease for the property through December 2011.

After Pathmark was acquired by A&P in Dec. 2007, however, the company vacated the property. James Maurer, president of Cofinance, tells GlobeSt.com that Cofinance has struck a deal with Pathmark whereby Cofinance will manage the property on Pathmark’s behalf for the remainder of the lease and will be able to re-tenant the building immediately. Joe Sarno, a broker in the Edison, NJ office of Cushman & Wakefield, will handle leasing on Cofinance’s behalf.

“The opportunity to have a building in the northern part of the Woodbridge market with a tenant that had vacated and was willing to work with us to re-lease the property made it a very attractive prospect,” says Maurer. “There are very few large blocks of space within the Woodbridge market, and this creates an opportunity for people who want easy access to Woodbridge, the New Jersey Turnpike and New York City.”

Maurer would not disclose specific details regarding the company’s plans for the property or rental rates. He did, however, say that Cofinance intends to invest “significant capital” in the property to make it tenant ready. In addition, Maurer described the rental rates as “extremely aggressive,” and Jose Cruz, the broker with Cushman & Wakefield’s metropolitan area capital markets group who arranged the sale, added that 200 Milik St. would be priced competitively to other Middlesex office markets such as Metropark.

“We feel we can provide the market some aggressive restructures and economics so the tenant is getting a net effective rate that is very attractive, and because of the arrangement we have with Pathmark, we can offer interesting lease structures that will help tenants with timing,” says Maurer.

“Pathmark’s been in this building for quite some time, and A&P has a corporate conscience and is interested in helping us bring people back to Carteret,” he adds. “They’re also very cost conscious, so they want to bring some tenants in to mitigate some of their lease exposure. That help[s us because we’ve agreed to invest capital in the building in order to re-lease it. This deal will work for Carteret as a town, for tenants from a cost mitigation standpoint and for us in getting a head start on our leasing effort.”

Although the property is suitable for either a single user or multiple tenants and benefits from easy access to the nearby New Jersey Turnpike, I-287 and Route 1&9, it is not without its marketing challenges. According to Maurer, it is located in a manufacturing and industrial area. The city of Carteret, however, has been seeking developers to bring retail, office and high-end manufacturing into several redevelopment areas around 200 Milik.

“The mayor of Carteret has done a tremendous job at progressing Carteret and capitalizing on their assets, which are the turnpike and the waterfront,” says Maurer. “We’re excited by the opportunity. We know it’ll be a challenge, but we have a good vision. We’re good at this—we’re one of the players who can see value and understand what it takes to find and fully realize that value.”