A Korean investment firm, Hana Asset Management Company, has acquired Novo Nordisk’s North American headquarters in Plainsboro, NJ for $305 million. The 762,000 sqf Class A office property sits in the heart of the Princeton market and includes nine interconnected buildings on 58 acres. The anchor tenant, Novo Nordisk, currently leases 563,000 sqf in the office park and has expansion rights there through April 2031. Members of Cushman & Wakefield’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group represented the seller, a partnership of Ivy Equities, LCOR, Inc., and Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. The transaction marks the largest single-asset sale in New Jersey to date in 2016.
“The superior investment-grade tenant and durable in-place cash flow with contractual rent steps at 800 Scudders Mill enabled us to source this noteworthy partnership as the purchasing entity,” Andrew Merin, Cushman & Wakefield said. “The result – a major offshore investment in New Jersey – is a big win for the state. The transaction came with a number of challenges, including the complexity of multiple partners on both sides of the sale.”
Located in the Princeton Forrestal Center Office and Research Park, 800 Scudders Mill Road was originally constructed for and occupied by Merrill Lynch in 1985 and was subsequently occupied by BlackRock. Novo Nordisk entered into a lease agreement in 2011 to take occupancy upon completion of a full redevelopment of the property, which was completed in April 2013. Novo Nordisk entered the Princeton office market in 1999 and has continued to expand ever since.
