Cypress Equities Obtains $90M to Expand Retail Center

Phase 2 of Legacy Square. Image courtesy of Cypress Equities

Cypress Equities has secured a $90 million construction loan from an insurance company to develop the 157,000-square-foot second phase of its Walmart-anchored Legacy Square shopping center in Linden, N.J. Phase 2 at the nearly 47-acre site is under construction and is slated for completion in early 2021.

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When Phase 2 is finished, the open-air shopping center will have about 350,000 square feet. Located at US Routes 1/9 and Pleasant Street along Linden’s primary retail corridor, Phase 1 was completed in late 2019 and featured an 185,682-square-foot Walmart Supercenter and seven finished pad sites. The project broke ground in May 2018 and three months later, Cypress secured the lease with Walmart to begin the 21-acre first phase.

Chris Maguire, CEO of Dallas-based Cypress Equities, said in a prepared statement the new financing will allow the firm and its partner, San-Francisco-based Stockbridge, to complete the shopping center and provide a new shopping and dining destination for the community.

Asked whether the Covid-19 crisis, which has hit New Jersey hard, was affecting construction of Phase 2, Maguire told Commercial Property Executive, “We are proceeding with construction per the guidance from the State of New Jersey and still anticipate delivering in Q1 2021.”

Several leases have been signed and include LA Fitness, Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, Supercuts, Hook & Reel, Panda Express and Verizon. To date, 52,560 square feet of leases have been executed and 26,000 square feet in leases are pending, according to Cypress.

Hugh Kelly and Brian von Schmid of SRS Real Estate Partners in New York, a Cypress sister company, are handling leasing.

Cypress deals

Founded in 1995, Cypress also has offices in New York City and Atlanta. The company has developed, acquired and managed more than 20 million square feet of retail and mixed-use properties. In September, Cypress sold Crystal Falls Town Center, a 94,820-square-foot Class A, grocery-anchored shopping center in Leander, Texas, an Austin suburb. In April 2018, Cypress tapped JLL to manage two of its Los Angeles-area retail properties, Burbank Town Center, a 1.2 million-square-foot indoor mall, and Glendale Marketplace, a 153,525-square-foot outdoor shopping center and entertainment center. Other properties in the portfolio include Flagstaff Mall in Flagstaff, Ariz.; The Hill in Dallas, and Bayshore Town Center in Glendale, Wis.