Friday, December 23, 2005

Jones Lang LaSalle

GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Toll Buys Out Pinnacle’s Equity Interest in Maxwell Place
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: December 21, 2005 03:20pm

(For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)
HOBOKEN, NJ-Pinnacle Ltd. brought Toll Brothers into its $500-million redevelopment of a 24-acre former Maxwell House coffee manufacturing plant site as a partner in early 2004. Now, Toll has apparently become the sole equity partner in the project.

According to a published report, the Horsham, PA-based Toll has paid $40 million to buy out the Millburn, NJ-based Pinnacle’s equity interest in Maxwell Place, the under-construction project is called. At build-out, the project will include more than 800 residential condos in four, 12-story buildings, along with some 200,000 sf of retail and office space and a 1,500-car parking structure.

According to the report, Pinnacle will stay on with the project and will collect a fee and other considerations for its ongoing role in its construction and marketing. Officials of both companies, while confirming the deal, would not comment further.

Pinnacle was an also-ran to New York City-based Gotham Partners and local investors Daniel Gans and George Vallone when the site first hit the market in 1998. The property traded for just $20 million then, but Pinnacle got back into the picture several years later when it ended up paying $76 million for a controlling interest in January 2004. Later the same month, Pinnacle announced it had brought Toll in as an equal partner for what industry sources say was a $75-million investment.

“This project represents another major step for us to expand our presence in affluent urban areas,” Robert I. Toll, chairman/CEO, said when the deal was announced. Toll turned the participation over to his company’s City Living subsidiary.

Construction began on the first of the four residential buildings in February of this year, with its 169 units slated for completion next summer. In April, PT Maxwell LLC, as the Toll/Pinnacle partnership for Maxwell Place is called, picked up a $338.3 million construction loan arranged by Hypo Real Estate Capital Corp. Earlier this month, the first 10,000 sf of retail space hit the market, with CB Richard Ellis tapped to market it.