P3 Properties Nabs NJ Office Asset

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Somerset Financial Center

P3 Properties has acquired Somerset Financial Center, a 233,000-square-foot office complex in Bedminster, N.J., from Related Cos.

“The in-place long-term lease was the relevant timing taken into consideration,” Harvey Rosenblatt, P3’s CEO, told Commercial Property Executive. “With a company interest of building a healthy mix within our portfolio of value add along with stable core assets, this fit perfectly.”

Cushman & Wakefield brokered the transaction. The firm’s sales team members Kevin Donner of the New York Capital Markets Group, and David Bernhaut, Gary Gabriel and Ryan Larkin, of the East Rutherford Capital Markets Group, handled the deal.

“We knew from the outset that this property would draw strong interest,” Donner said in a prepared statement. “In locating there, Mallinckrodt took advantage of this property’s ‘pharma belt’ location, accessibility, surrounding highly skilled and educated labor pool, to redesign Somerset Financial Center into a premier work environment. As an investment opportunity, it offered everything that a forward-looking owner/operator like P3 Properties appreciates.”

The state-of-the-art complex is located close by the I-78/I-287 Corridor in Somerset and Middlesex counties, which is a big hub of pharmaceutical development and research facilities. 

A strong tenant

Somerset Financial Center currently serves as the New Jersey headquarters of specialty pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt, which has 480 employees in the building and is said to be looking to consolidate operations.

According to Rosenblatt, the company was looking to diversify its portfolio, which made this deal attractive.

“Mallinckrodt’s in-place long-term lease provides stability and predictable cash flow, and we love the fact that the property is a wonderful work environment that reflects nearly $50 million in recent improvements,” Rosenblatt said. “The fact that we are partners/owners in Somerset Corporate Campus in Bridgewater allows us to build upon that and grow in this region.”

P3 is planning to infuse its BLUE management along with its design and marketing strategy on the new office complex.

John Alascio, Sridhar Vankayala and Zackary Kraft of Cushman & Wakefield’s Equity, Debt & Structured Finance team, facilitated $42 million in senior financing for the deal, securing a 10-year fixed-term, 10-year interest-only loan through Rialto Mortgage Finance.

In June, P3 Properties signed a 345,000-square-foot, 12-year lease with Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. at MCCBLUE in Parsippany, N.J. 

Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield