Brookwood Financial Partners, a leading real estate investment and asset management company, announced that it has acquired Morris Corporate Center I & II, a multi-tenant office property consisting of two ย four-story buildings from STRS Ohio (State Teachers Retirement Systems Ohio).
The property contains 529,362 square feet and built on 31 acres of the 182-acre Morris Corporate Center campus filled with preserved woodlands, jogging trails, ponds and a waterfall . The property is currently 78% occupied..
A diverse number of global investment-grade companies are currently tenants at the building, including Zurich Insurance, Medtronic, RalCorp, ICAP and Farmers Insurance.
STRS owned the building for more than 13 years and decided to strategically reemploy its capital into a differentย property types. Brookwood was the most qualified buyer and had the experience and capital needed, stated Kevin Welsh, senior vice president CBRE.
Brookwood will update/refresh the exterior and interior signage, common areas lobbies, restrooms, fitness and conference centers, the cafes, elevators, parking lot, and make extensive landscaping improvements, Welsh added.โBrookwood has a fund that focuses in on very high-quality value officeย transactionsย and this opportunity was aย perfect fit. The property offers high-quality real estate and a significant upside and Brookwood plans to effectively reposition the property through its capital. Itโs hard to find this type of real estate,โ said Welsh. โThe deal also demonstrates that Brookwood really believes in the Parsippany office market and theย suburbanย office market in general. Itโs a true testimony of investors coming back into the office market and the marketโs giant potential. This is an inflection point that demonstrates restored confidence in the market.โ
Mr. Brown added that โBrookwoodโs business plan is to invest approximately $3 million in capital to upgrade the exterior and interior signage, the common area lobbies and restrooms, the fitness and conference centers, the cafรฉs, elevators and parking lots, and make extensive landscaping improvements. In conjunction with these property capital upgrades, we will be implementing an aggressive marketing program, offering prospective tenants attractive rental rates and full tenant improvement allowances, which should allow us to accelerate the lease-up of the remaining vacant space.โ
This part of New Jersey is showing signs of stabilization, with positive absorption occurring in four of the five most recent quarters. The unemployment rate in Morris County has also decreased from a high of 8.0% in 2010 to the most recent rate of 5.8% in April of 2014. With no new Class A construction underway or expected in the near future, Brookwood expects that vacancy rates will continue to improve over the next 18 to 24 months.
About Brookwood Financial Partners, LLCย โ Brookwood is a Massachusetts-based private equity firm that acquires real estate and invests in private companies. Since 1993, Brookwood has acquired 129 properties totaling approximately 12.5 million square feet of office, retail, flex and research & development space as well as 143 hotel rooms, 138 condominium units, 572 apartment units and 1,360 residential building lots. Brookwood has acquired real estate throughout the United States including in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia. In addition, Brookwood has invested in private companies in the wireless communications, restaurant, software and outsourcing industries. Brookwood has invested over $593 million in equity to acquire assets with a realized and unrealized value of over $1.6 billion.