The Shops at Ledgewood Commons

LEDGEWOOD, NJ—The planned conversion of The Shops at Ledgewood Commons from an enclosed mall into a regional power center just got a nearly $73-million boost.

Cushman & Wakefield reports that the property ownership Advance Realty Investors secured a $72.5-million construction loan from Santander Bank for the project. The brokerage firm's Equity, Debt & Structured Finance (EDSF) team arranged the financing deal for affiliates of Advance Realty Investors.

Located in the heart of Morris County in Roxbury Township, the shopping center is located directly on Route 10, one quarter mile from Route 46 and two miles from I-80.

The Shops at Ledgewood Commons is a 517,000-square-foot 2,100 car-space retail center with more than 700 feet of frontage on Route 10. Tenants include Walmart, Marshalls, Sports Authority, Ashley Furniture, Barnes and Noble, Ruby Tuesdays, and Men's Warehouse.

"We could not be more pleased with our team's collective execution on this financing and we greatly look forward to the revitalization of this once thriving mall," says Alex Cocoziello for Advance Realty Investors. "Once complete, this center will serve as the model for how struggling retail centers, through great partnerships and creativity, can be successfully repositioned."

"While financing retail centers can be challenging in the current climate, quality assets and experienced sponsors still garner strong demand from a subset of lenders, which, given our strong lender relationships and deal flow volume, we were able to tap into," says C&W's EDSF member John Alascio, who headed the assignment with Sridhar Vankayala, TJ Sullivan and Zachary Kraft. "During the marketing process, we secured competitive interest from a number of banks and debt funds and ultimately selected Santander based on its clear understanding of the redevelopment and ability to provide the attractive terms and flexibility necessary to complete the project."