Thor Equities Acquires Life Sciences Building for $95M

95 Greene St. Image courtesy of JLL

Developer Thor Equities Group is building up its life sciences platform through the $94.5 million acquisition of 95 Greene St., a commercial building in downtown Jersey City, N.J. SJP Properties sold the 337,888-square-foot asset also known as Liberty Innovation Center.

The sale comes after Thor Equities ventured into the growing life sciences sector by launching its Thor Life platform last August. The company kicked off the new division by purchasing The Center of Excellence, a 784,000-square-foot life sciences campus in Bridgewater, N.J., from Advance Realty for $152 million.

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Located on the Hudson waterfront across from Lower Manhattan, 95 Greene St. served as Colgate Palmolive’s main manufacturing facility from the early 20^th century until 1987. The property was later occupied by Merrill Lynch after being converted into a Class A office building.

Making it lab ready

Thor Equities plans to invest millions of dollars in repositioning the building to a “lab ready” condition, according to a prepared statement by JLL, which brokered the recently closed sale. The legacy manufacturing property is entitled for R&D and specialty uses and has 13-foot ceiling heights, 38,000-square-foot floor plates, modern mechanical systems and views of the Statue of Liberty and New York City skyline.

The eight-story building is located at the intersection of Greene and York streets, within the city’s Paulus Hook neighborhood and a short walk from the Exchange Place PATH Station as well as the new Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system. 

JLL’s Daniel Loughlin, Jose Cruz, John Cunningham, Blake Goodman and John Cahill represented SJP Properties in the acquisition, while Thor Equities tapped the brokerage to continue serving as the property’s exclusive leasing agent.