Aviation Plaza Sells for $92M

LINDEN, NJ-Aviation Plaza, a 642,500-sf power center along Route 1 and 9 in this Union County community, has been sold for just less than $92.4 million. Because Home Depot owns its own building, the transaction actually covers about 443,100 sf of that total space, so the trade factors out to just more than $208 per sf.

Milbrook Properties of Manhasset, NY now owns the six-year-old asset, picking it up from Aviation Tower LLC. Aviation Plaza was acquired as part of a 1031 exchange, reports Jeffrey Dunne, who with CB Richard Ellis’ New York Institutional Group colleague Todd Newman arranged the sale. In conjunction with Jim Gunning of CBRE Melody, the brokers also picked up financing for Milbrook of an undisclosed amount from Principal Real Estate Investors.

“This is the third 1031 sale that we’ve completed for Milbrook over the past 18 months,” Dunne tells GlobeSt.com. “They are buying great real estate with Aviation Plaza, and they should fare very well with this investment. It’s an outstanding collection of best-in-class tenants.”

The CBRE duo had previously arranged the sale of the property in June 2003 to Aviation Tower LLC, a group headed by Morristown-based SSR Realty Advisors, now known as BlackRock Realty Advisors. That particular deal came with a $54.5-million price tag, minus the Home Depot space, with Aviation Tower LLC buying the then one-year-old center from original developer Starwood Ceruzzi.

This past February, meanwhile, the original center was expanded with an additional, separately-owned pad site supporting a bank, theater and restaurant. The CBRE brokers subsequently arranged the sale of that expansion as well to Aviation Tower LLC for an undisclosed price.

Aviation Plaza takes its name from the 39-acre site it occupies within the former Linden Airport, a defunct general aviation facility. Besides the self-owned Home Depot store, the center is anchored by a ShopRite supermarket, Target, AMC Theaters, Marshalls, Staples, Old Navy and A.C. Moore. About 80% of the center’s tenant space is given over to national chains.

For new owner Milbrook, the acquisition comes as it celebrates its 75th anniversary as a business. The four-generation, family-owned company now has a portfolio of 80 retail, office and multifamily properties along the East Coast.