Bob Martie, executive vice president of Gale & Wentworth, the owner of the Mount Pleasant Executive Center, was the guest speaker at the Westchester County Board of Realtors Commercial Investment Division meeting on Thursday, Jan. 18. Martie and Insignia/ESG's Paul Jacobs, the exclusive leasing agent, revealed that the firm is in "serious discussions" with one company that would lease the entire 383,000 sf building.
They added that they are also in negotiations with a number of other tenants that are seeking 75,000 sf of space and up. They refused to divulge the identities of the firms. Martie said that since the Florham Park, NJ-based development firm acquired the building, it has come close to signing large lease transactions only to have the deals fall apart at the eleventh hour. "We've had about a handful of near misses," he admitted.
However, Martie and Jacobs said they were "cautiously optimistic" that some deals will close within the next three months. Martie explained that the company's acquisition of the property last year was to serve as the firm's beachhead in a campaign to aggressively enter the Westchester County marketplace.
He noted that since the Westchester market did not recover as quickly as surrounding areas since it acquired the property in November 1998, it has not purchased any other Westchester property as it had originally planned. However, the Westchester County office market is now robust and activity at the property is mirroring the strong market conditions, he said.
He noted that while there is no viable competitor in the county for what he termed "this trophy-quality" property, the burgeoning Jersey City office market has secured large lease deals from New York City-based firms that historically could have gone to Westchester County. Martie added that the Westchester County market and the Mount Pleasant Executive Center should benefit from the fact that very little property is left in Jersey City that could be made available in the near term.
Another market that could bring deals to the property is Fairfield County. Insignia's Jacobs noted that due to the tight market conditions in Connecticut, the amount of leasing interest from Fairfield County-based firms has increased significantly in recent times.
Martie noted that once it has attracted some lease deals to the property it plans to begin a building acquisition effort so that it can become a player in the Westchester commercial real estate market.
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John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.
