New Jersey Retail Center Scores $32M Refi

Veterans Square Town Center. Image via Google Street View

The Hampshire Cos. has borrowed $32 million to refinance Veterans Square Town Center, a 136,928-square-foot, grocery-anchored shopping center in Northern New Jersey. JLL arranged the 10-year, fixed-rate, non-recourse loan through PGIM Real Estate Finance. The proceeds of the loan will be used to refinance an existing loan arranged by JLL’s predecessor HFF.

Located at 530-560 New York Ave. in the township of Lyndhurst, the fully occupied retail asset was built in 2000 and expanded from its original 113,178-square-foot size in 2013. The property is anchored by ShopRite and 12 other tenants including HomeGoods, PetSmart, Supercuts, DaVita Kidney Care, GNC, Diamond Exchange and World Martial Arts Academy.

Veterans Square Town Center is located nearby Route 3 in Bergen County, about 7 miles from Manhattan. Some 70,000 households with 183,000 residents live within a 3-mile radius of the property. JLL noted in the statement that the lender provided attractive loan terms upon seeing the value of the area’s solid demographics, the long-term tenancy of the retail center and the strength of the grocery anchor.

Grocery retail still a draw

Necessity retail, such as grocery operators, continues to lure investors amid the challenges posed to the brick and mortar shopping by the growth of e-commerce. A recent report by MetLife Investment Management found that many grocery centers are still trading at sub-5 percent cap rates. The institutional asset manager cautions that the sector may be exposed to headwinds over the coming decade.

Senior Managing Director Jon Mikula, Managing Director Michael Klein and Analyst Connor Van Cleef led the JLL Capital Markets team representing the borrower. The Hampshire Cos. is an integrated real estate firm that specializes in industrial, grocery, multi-family and self-storage properties in New Jersey and the East Coast.