FLORHAM PARK, NJ—JLL has sold a 250,589-square-foot office building at 160 Park Ave. here to a company that manufactures power transfer switches, which will relocate from elsewhere in Florham Park. The sale price was not disclosed.
JLL's Jonathan Meisel and Dennis McConnell, assisted by Dan Spero, represented the seller, Columbia Property Trust. The buyer is Automatic Switch, which has occupied its current facility on Hanover Road for more than 80 years.
Meisel says that the Park Avenue building, previously occupied by ATT Shannon Labs, had for years “quietly served as a crucible of incredible telecommunications discoveries and ground-breaking mobile communications innovations.” He says JLL pursued the deal with Automatic Switch this way:
“We knew the facility offered an ideal fit for Automatic Switch and we worked closely with the owner to highlight the building's potential to the prospective buyer. We brought in architectural firm Gensler to design a virtual fly-through to show what the building could look like. JLL's project and development services team created a presentation that clearly broke down how much Automatic Switch could save by relocating to 160 Park Avenue compared with other similar properties.”
Automatic Switch had been conducting a survey, through its brokers, to devise a short list of buildings in New Jersey that could fill its requirements. Automatic Switch was represented by Curt Stanton, a principal with Paine/Wetzel TCN Worldwide in Chicago and Cushman & Wakefield's executive director Christopher Kinum and senior director Jules Nissim.
“160 Park Avenue satisfied all of Automatic Switch's space needs, engineering and laboratory requirements, and was in close proximity to its existing location,” said Kinum.
The three-story building at 160 Park Avenue, previously known as Building 103 at 180 Park Avenue, is located at the intersection of Park Avenue and Florham Park Road. It is situated within The Green at Florham Park, a 268-acre master planned development on the site of the former ExxonMobil Research Center on Park Avenue here.
The building will be renovated to suit Automatic Switch. It already offers redundant utilities, a 125-seat auditorium, breakout areas for occupants to congregate, a full-service cafeteria and a fitness center.
Automatic Switch is relocating from the 400,000-square-foot office building at 50 Hanover Road in Florham Park. The manufacturing company had occupied the facility for approximately 80 years and will move its operations to the new location over the next few years.
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