Urban Edge Lands $290M for New Jersey Mall

Bergen Town Center. Image courtesy of Urban Edge Properties

Retail REIT Urban Edge Properties has refinanced Bergen Town Center, a 1 million-square-foot mall in Paramus, N.J., with a new seven-year, $290 million loan. New York Life Insurance Co. and MetLife Investment Management provided the fixed-rate mortgage as co-lenders.

The loan replaces previous debt, a 10-year, $300 million note from Wells Fargo Bank set to mature this April, public records show. With the refinancing, Urban Edge has reduced its debt maturing through the end of 2025 to $235 million, representing less than 15 percent of outstanding indebtedness.

Trepp reported the $300 million loan had been sent to special servicing ahead of the maturity date, noting how difficult refinancing can be in this market even for a strong performing asset like Bergen Town Center. The report stated the property’s occupancy had rebounded from 77 percent in 2021 to 91 percent in 2022, and of the top five tenants, only one has a lease expiration before 2029.

Located on the heavily trafficked Route 4 in Bergen County, N.J., Bergen Town Center attracts more than 11 million visitors annually. The retail corridor has traffic counts of 155,000 vehicles per day; the average annual household income for approximately 550,000 people living within 5 miles of the property is $140,000. Whole Foods and Target anchor the 1957-built asset.

Jeff Olson, chairman & CEO of Urban Edge, which owns 76 properties totaling 17.2 million square feet of gross leasable space mainly between Boston and Washington, D.C., mentioned in prepared remarks the unprecedented volatility in the debt capital markets when talking about the successful refinancing of the mall’s mortgage.

Mall additions

Olson said Urban Edge is continuing to enhance the asset, which is the second oldest mall in New Jersey and has already undergone a $50 million renovation in recent years. One way is through new leases announced last week; Crumbl Cookies, Haagen Daz, Journeys, Perfumania and Bond Vet recently committed to a total of 9,553 square feet at the property. In addition, two J. Crew’s concepts, J. Crew and J. Crew Men’s, will be combining into one larger flagship space, with 6,247 square feet.

In a move becoming more and more common around the U.S., the REIT has expressed the intention of building 456 residential units at the shopping center site, as reported by the local media. A proposal before the Paramus Planning Board calls for Urban Edge to demolish a retail building on the east side of the property and construct two residential buildings with 182 and 274 units, respectively. The board will consider the proposal at its April 20 meeting, according to the Paramus government website.

Last year, Urban Edge earmarked another adaptive reuse project at Bergen Town Center. One of the tenants, Hackensack Meridian Health, developed an 80,000-square-foot medical office building on the property.