Negotiating for the tenant was John P. Feeney, a managing director for Studley. He tells GlobeSt.com that his team was given little time to find new digs for the global pharma company. "My first conversation with them was at the end of September or the beginning of October," he says. "They had a January 22nd lease expiration. In the world of real estate, it was pretty late." The tenant signed a sublease for four-and-a-half years, which represents the balance of the existing lease term originally signed by Clifton-based healthcare-packaging company Cortegra at 20 Waterview Blvd.
According to Feeney, Wockhardt had outgrown its Bedminster office, which spans about 4,000 square feet. Further necessitating a move was the fact that the landlord had already lined up a tenant for the firm's former space.
"The landlord actually had a deal for their space," Feeney says. "Wockhardt needed more space, in addition to the fact they had this lease expiration coming up."
Feeney declined to disclose the economics of the lease, but says that because the tenant moved into turnkey space without any changes, the rent was lower than the market average. "We didn't have enough time to negotiate a lease document and build out space," Feeney says. "So we needed to find something that existed. When you throw that into the equation, the deal was probably below market." A February report from the Sitar Co. and Rutgers University pegs the current average asking rents in Morris County at $29.47 per square foot.
Feeney says that one other prospect was vying for the space. "We were in a bit of a footrace with one other tenant," he says. "We won out when it came to who they were going to select to go forward with the deal."
Mack-Cali Realty Corp. owns the 13-acre Waterview Corporate Center, which has access to several area thoroughfares, including Routes 287, 80, 202 and 46.
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