Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Jones Lang LaSalle


Matrix Exits Area with $22M Office Sale
By Marita Thomas


HORSHAM, PA-The Cranbury, NJ-based Matrix Development Corp. has sold the 115,850-sf office building at 100 Tournament Dr. for $22 million, or nearly $190 per sf. The three-story property, located within Commonwealth Corporate Center on the Commonwealth Country Club golf course, is fully leased.

Jim Vesey, senior director, and James Sheehan of the Philadelphia office of Cushman & Wakefield represented Matrix in the sale. "The seller is disposing of its properties in this market," Vesey tells GlobeSt.com, "and this is its last office asset in the suburbs."

As Matrix exits, the buyer, Glendale, CA-based American Realty Advisors, enters this market, "and is looking to grow in the area," Vesey adds. It invests in real estate for pension funds, and Boston-based Barrington Capital Partners represented it.

The facility was completed in 1988, according to Vesey, "and it’s a beautiful building on a prime site. There were a lot of bidders." Asking rental rates in the Horsham/Willow Grove submarket range between $23.17 per sf and $20.53 per sf, according to a first-quarter 2006 report from the Philadelphia office of Grubb & Ellis.

The Commonwealth center contains eight buildings under different owners. Among them are Motorola and Marked Tree, AR-based CenterCore, a supplier of office furniture systems. Both are owner/users.

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