WARREN, NJ–California-based Griffin Capital Corp. has acquired the Verizon Wireless headquarters here for $40 million, GlobeSt.com has exclusively learned.
The company sponsored its Capital Essential Asset REIT in completing the deal for the 210,500-square-foot, six-story office building located about 10 miles away from Verizon's corporate headquarters in Basking Ridge.
The Wireless building is leased to the company's parent, Cellco Partnership, through 2020.
Making its second acquisition in New Jersey, the REIT paid about $190 per square foot for a building that it assesses as “mission-critical” to Verizon.
Griffin Capital's Louis Sohn said, “Verizon Wireless has occupied this location as a key IT facility since its formation as a joint-venture company in 2000.
“Over the past 13 years the tenant has continually reaffirmed its commitment to the property through significant capital investments into the asset,” he added. Sohn referred to the building as a “premier, self-contained corporate campus,” with back-up power, dining, fitness and data center facilities.
Verizon Wireless is the leading national provider of wireless service; it has an investment-grade credit rating from Standard and Poor's of A-minus.
“From an industry and credit perspective,” said Michael Escalante, Griffin's CIO, we are very optimistic about the wireless telecommunications industry as a whole and particularly enthusiastic about our tenant's positioning within the space.”
The company's Information Technology group is housed in the Warren building, which is set along the Interstate 78 corridor known as New Jersey's “wealth belt” because of its string of highly-affluent communities.
A non-traded REIT, Griffin Essential Assets has assembled a portfolio of 22 office and industrial distribution properties totaling approximately 4.72 million square feet and total value of more than$700 million.
Its sponsor Griffin Capital is a privately-owned real estate company headquartered in El Segundo, CA. Griffin Capital and its affiliates have acquired or constructed 18 million square feet of space since 1996.
They currently own, sponsor or manage about $3.3 billion in total assets.
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