Real Estate Group Sells Two Morris County Based Properties

PARSIPPANY, N.J.– The Parsippanny-based investment sales team at Colliers International Group Inc. sold two Morris County-based office properties, according to a press release.

Jackie Chesler, Richard J. Madison and Jonathan Schlussel sold Kemble Plaza I to Onyx Equities for $7.6 million, said Evelyn Weiss Francisco, the vice president of Caryl Communications, who put out the release.

The 387,000-square-foot building – AT&T's former corporate headquarters – is located at 340 Mount Kemle Avenue in Morris Township.

“Kemble Plaza I is one of only six buildings in Morris County with at least 125,000 square feet of contiguous available space, making it an ideal candidate for repositioning or redevelopment,” Chesler said. “Additionally, the Morris Township administration is forward-thinking and interested in examining potential re-uses, which added further appeal to the offering.”

The aforementioned team sold 34 Corporate Plaza in Pine Brook to a private, state-based buyer for $2.5 million, according to Francisco.

The 130,000-square-foot building, located at 34 Maple Avenue, formerly housed Pitney Bowes and Echostar, among others, she said.

The building is currently 14 percent occupied, she added, and is zoned for 25 uses including office, medical, assisted living, warehousing and more.

“The permitted zoning along with exceptional highway access drew significant investor interest for 34 Corporate Plaza,” Chesler said. “Good things are happening in the Parsippany office submarket, which has
seen over 300,000 square feet of leasing activity in five of the last six quarters. The availability rate has dropped nearly 5 percentage points in the last 18 months.”

This follows Colliers' recent sale of Continental Plaza, a 650,000-square-foot, landmark corporate property in Hackensack.

“Following many years during which investors largely targeted stabilized assets, we are seeing notably stepped-up activity involving northern New Jersey’s aging and lower-occupancy inventory,” Chesler said.
“Developers are rethinking and repositioning suburban office buildings and campuses to accommodate a new generation of tenants or redeveloping them for alternate use. Many of these buildings have not seen a proper
infusion of capital in some time, and they are being purchased, improved and maintained at a lower basis than neighboring competitive properties.”

(images courtesy of Caryl Communications)