WP Buys 93,000-SF Vacant Office Building

ROCKAWAY, NJ-WP Commercial LLC, based in Chatham, NJ, has acquired 80 West Corporate Center here. The seller was Simon Properties; the sale price was not disclosed. The 93,000-sf office building is situated adjacent to Rockaway Townsquare, an enclosed super-regional shopping mall, as well as the new, 160-room Hilton Gardens Hotel. The site is at a four-way interchange with I-80.

The three-story building is currently vacant and is now in the process of undergoing a major redevelopment. “We plan to renovate the asset and elevate it to class A status,” according to Mark Schaevitz, COO of the New York/New Jersey region for WP Commercial. “The building upgrades will include a new façade, mechanical systems, restrooms and lobby. We expect construction to be completed by this October. This property has a lot of potential.”

WP Commercial owns and manages more than five million sf in the New York/New Jersey market, as well as metro Boston and metro Washington, DC. The firm was formed last year with an initial equity commitment of $75 million as a venture between the Whitehall Fund and senior management from the former Wellsford Commercial Properties Trust.