| When you’ve got a myriad of credit tenants, including Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bank of America, JPMorgan, BASF, Shionogi, and various law and wealth management firms, how do you keep them happy? KBS Realty Advisors seems to have found the magic formula at its 1.2M SF Park Avenue at Morris County in Florham Park, NJ, which it purchased for $362M in ’08. It’s all about the amenities, says KBS SVP Charles Valentino. With upgrades the new owners have made, occupancy has climbed to 95%. The biggest testament: it’s usually difficult to lease space when a tenant already occupies its offices, but when BlackRock said it was going to offer 37k SF for sublease, KBS had a subtenant lined up and ready. |
| Among the amenities at Park Avenue at Morris County: on-site management, food service, cafeterias (pictured), shuttle buses to New Jersey Transit, and access to Morris County Airport. Once a month, the owners hold events in the atrium for tenants, from piano players to gift sales—and last year, a vendor who sold gifts the week before Father’s Day (we hope they sold more than ties) made $24k from the interest it sparked. Tenants particularly like charitable events. On June 21, KBS is hosting an event to benefit the United Way of Northern NJ it's donating $25 to the org to help needy families in Florham Park for every person who walks along the campus’ new 1.7-mile walking trail, |
| The building now has 50k SF of space available; the largest block is 30k SF, and Charles says many law firms have been looking at the space. Next year, McKinsey & Co will be vacating a 100k SF block and moving to Summit, and KBS is already seeing significant interest in the space from full and partial building occupiers. Among KBS’s other assets: the 620k SF Woodbridge Corporate Plaza in Iselin (where Maidenform just extended and expanded its lease into 81k SF) and NYC’s 619 W 54th St and 434 Broadway. The company is looking at further opportunistic investments in the office and industrial sectors to meet the demands of its clients—including state and corporate pension funds, non-publicly traded REITS, offshore investment funds, and individuals—in the Northeast, particularly NY, NJ, and Boston. Speaking of Beantown, Charles is an avid Red Sox fan after living in the city for 22 years. (Editor interjection, unbeknownst to our NY reporter: Go Sox!) (Second interjection unbeknownst to the first editor: Go Yankees!) |
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