Lionstone Capital’s $123M Record-Breaking Acquisition

Continental Plaza. Image courtesy of CBRE

Capstone Realty Group and JD Cos. have sold Continental Plaza in Hackensack, N.J., to Lionstone Capital for $123 million. The deal marks the largest sale of a multi-tenant office building in suburban New Jersey year-to-date and the highest price paid for an office building in Bergen County in over five years, according to CBRE, which represented the seller and procured the buyer.

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Located at 401 Hackensack Ave., Continental Plaza is made up of three office buildings and a restaurant pad site, totaling 647,947 square feet. The office complex was renovated by its previous owners and now includes a fitness center, a conference center with breakout rooms, a tenant lounge and a full-service cafeteria.

While the office property is thriving now, Continental Plaza struggled prior to being purchased for $63 million in August 2016 by Capstone and JD. According to the North Jersey, the property went through foreclosure and vacancies until the new ownership took over, with plans of restoring the building’s glory. Several years later, Capstone and JD were able to bring the occupancy rate from 69 percent to 91 percent through an extensive renovation plan.

Jeremy Neuer, executive vice president at CBRE, said Continental Plaza was a major success story, where the previous owners revamped the entire building to create a special tenant experience. Jeffrey Dunne, vice chair at CBRE, added that the new and improved office complex will attract new tenants, while retaining existing tenants and provide the new owner to benefit from the strong cash flow.

CBRE’s Dunne and Neuer along with Steve Bardsley, David Gavin, Gene Pride, Travis Langer and Zach McHale of the Institutional Properties team was responsible for representing the seller and procuring the buyer.

Setting regional records

Following the closing of the Continental Plaza deal, CBRE has bested its own record of arranging the largest office sale in Bergen County. The runner up to the Hackensack transaction was last year’s sale of the 511,600-square-foot Park 80 West in Saddle Brook, N.J., for $115.5 million that was also bought by Lionstone Capital.

CBRE has also recently arranged the sale of American Metro Center in Hamilton, N.J., which was bought by The Birch Group for $84.7 million in October.