Jones Lang LaSalle

Mack-Cali, PRC JV on 111,000-SF Office Complex
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: March 28, 2006 09:31am

RED BANK, NJ-Homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises is adding to its Downtown presence here in a big way, preleasing most of the planned Red Bank Corporate Plaza on a triple net basis for 10 years. The project is directly across the street from its new 65,200-sf headquarters building on Riverside Street, where it will be relocating shortly from its current home in nearby Middletown.

Red Bank Corporate's original developer, the PRC Group of West Long Branch, has a new, high-profile joint venture partner, namely the Cranford-based Mack-Cali Realty Corp. At build-out, Red Bank Corporate Center will total approximately 111,000 sf, with the initial four-story building that Hovnanian will occupy totaling 93,000 sf, including 88,000 sf of office space and 5,000 sf of retail.

A second office building of 18,560 sf will be developed at a later date, and a four-story parking garage is also part of the plan for the 3.4-acre site. The cost of Red Bank Corporate Center hasn’t been released. Hovnanian officials would not comment on the project.

“We acquired the site four-plus years ago,” Joel S. Brudner, PRC’s EVP/CFO, tells GlobeSt.com. “There were traffic concerns, and there were environmental issues,” he says of the site, which was occupied for many years by an auto dealership. “So we didn’t get final approval from all the agencies until about a year and a half ago, and we’ve formed a joint venture with Mack-Cali to develop the project jointly. This may lead to other ventures between our firms.”

The arrangement between the two companies calls for PRC to contribute the site and the two companies to develop it. The latter will serve as the leasing agent, and the two companies will co-manage it.

“We had been in touch with Hovnanian since their headquarters project started across the street,” Brudner says. “They will occupy both buildings, consolidating and expanding from other locations. Both buildings have the same architect and a similar design, and the object was to try and create some synergy and make a statement at that intersection.”

“We look forward to partnering with PRC and to enhancing our relationship with Hovnanian, which is both a Mack-Cali tenant and a potential co-developer with us on a transit village project,” says Mitchell E. Hersh, Mack-Cali’s president/CEO.

“Besides its excellent location, Red Bank Corporate Plaza will be one of just a handful of Downtown properties with suburban-type parking ratios,” Brudner says. “We’re looking forward to breaking ground within the next few weeks and expect to have it completed by the third quarter of 2007.”