Jones Lang LaSalle

First Indemnity Agrees to $6M HQ Sale-Leaseback Deal
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: January 25, 2006 09:02am

PASRSIPPANY, NJ-Littleton Road Associates has acquired First Indemnity of America Insurance Co’s 36,308-sf headquarters building at 119 Littleton Rd. here for $6.25 million. The sale price factors out to $172 per sf, and under the terms of the sale-leaseback transaction, FIA will stay in the three-story building, paying rent on a net basis for at least the next decade. The buyer is a locally based private equity consortium.

FIA, an Absco subsidiary, was represented by vice president Nick Savage of CB Richard Ellis. Absco is a holding company for a group of businesses, including a surety bond firm, a healthcare adjustor and a security trading firm. The buyer was represented by Beth Krinsky, Judith Cohen, Aaron Mittleman and Philip Cantor of Weichert Commercial.

“FIA had unrealized value in the building and was able to fully monetize the asset by choosing to remain there on a long-term lease,” Savage says. “The transaction involved a 1031 exchange buyer who understood the value in the transaction, which in turn helped the seller achieve its financial goal after paying a substantial pre-payment penalty to remove the existing conduit loan.” Located on a 2.43-acre site at the intersection of Interstates 80 and 287, the building was originally constructed in 1977 and extensively renovated for FIA in 1998.