PSE&G HQ in Newark, NJ Sold for $147.5 Million

Citifeet / GlobeSt - September 25, 2006

Wells REIT has acquired 80 Park Plaza, a one-million-sf Downtown office tower, on behalf of its Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II. The seller was Newark Urban Renewal Investors LP, an affiliate of Lehman Brothers.

The deal was brokered for the seller by Gary Gabriel and Andrew Merin of Cushman & Wakefield’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, East Rutherford and the reported sale price of $147.5 million factors out to about $144 per sf.

The building, a Downtown landmark, serves as the headquarters of its sole tenant, utility giant Public Service Electric & Gas. It was completed in 1979 as a build-to-suit for PSE&G by the New York-based Rockefeller Group Development and has undergone significant improvements in the past three years. The asset consists of a 26-story main tower and a three-story plaza.

While PSE&G is booked into the entire building under a lease that runs into 2015, there had been some questions very recently about how much of the asset the state’s largest utility would actually continue to occupy. PSE&G had last year agreed to be acquired by the Chicago-based Exelon in a $28-billion deal, but earlier this month Exelon backed out in the face of opposition by the state’s Board of Public Utilities. Sphere: Related Content