National Resources Sells New York-Area Mixed-Asset Portfolio for $450M

The wait was well worth it.

A more than year-long process that began last summer when National Resources CEO Lynne Ward contacted Marty Berger, co-founder of Saber-Hightower, about selling a mixture of commercial real estate assets across the New York City region as part of an estate sale produced a winning result.

A joint venture between Lincoln Property Company, Saber-Hightower and Waterfall Asset Management acquired four National Resources properties encompassing more than 4million square feet in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, for $450 million, Commercial Observer has learned.

The acquisition, which is anchored by iPark 84, a 270-acre business park in East Fishkill, N.Y., took longer than usual to close given the amount of acreage involving three states, according to Jared Toothman, executive vice president and New York City metro market leader at Lincoln. Toothman said Berger invited him to his golf club to discuss the deal and later added Waterfall to the partnership after pitching the opportunity to investors. 

“We shook hands on it over a card table at a golf club and then we were off to the races,”  Berger told CO. “We took a very long time to really get our hands around a portfolio to be able to extract all the pieces.”

The iPark 84 property 50 miles north of Manhattan consists of a 1.8 million-square-foot campus originally developed for IBM’s flagship semiconductor manufacturing plant. It has a diverse tenant mix that includes IBM, Samsung subsidiary eMagin and agricultural company Cal-Maine, and can accommodate 1.5 million square feet of additional development 

The sale also features a 29-acre, mixed-use center at 761 Main Street in Norwalk, Conn., anchored by a Northwell Health medical outpatient complex, The roughly 400,000 square-foot property includes the corporate headquarters of bicycle company Cannondale, a 70,000-square-foot gym and space for approved multifamily development.

The transaction also consists of Edgewater Harbor, in Edgewater, N.J., a 262-unit multifamily waterfront community with 60,000 square feet of retail space that includes a Sprouts Farmers Market, and Trilogy Lofts, a 97-unit, transit-oriented apartment complex in Yonkers, N.Y., adjacent to the Tuckahoe Metro-North station where 50 additional apartments are also planned.

Zachary Liebmann, partner and head of commercial real estate at Waterfall Asset Management, noted that the deal was the firm’s largest real estate acquisition to date, involving a “very complex, diverse portfolio” where it took time to understand each asset. Liebmann noted that the deal process “required a thoughtful” approach given that the financing component involved the assumption of two commercial mortgage-backed securities loans and two balance sheet loans from Affinius Capital for the portfolio’s multifamily properties. 

Toothman said the iPark 84 is well positioned for future success given its  location near New York City and close proximity to distribution centers built in recent years by Amazon, PepsiCo and car manufacturer Stellantis. He added that the development was also attractive due to its historical ties with a company like IBM.

“When you take a step back, it’s literally the flagship manufacturing site of the company that was the most valuable in the world for 30 years,” Toothman said. “It is that level of infrastructure that you simply cannot replicate today anywhere in the country.” 

Toothman added that a request for proposals is already in the works for “a large manufacturing user” to lease up to 2 million square feet at the iPark 84 site. He noted that the property is uniquely situated to land tenants given it has a 270,000-square-foot former semiconductor plant initially coveted for IBM that can be converted into manufacturing uses. 

The JV has hired Newmark to market the iPark 8 property for future leasing opportunities. The team is also exploring renovating and repositioning the portfolio’s multifamily assets and expanding medical office tenants at the Norwalk property along with “selective development” or monetizing surplus land parcels throughout the four assets. 

Berger, who co-founded Saber-Hightower alongside Gregory Belew and Doug Browne in 2023, said the portfolio proved to be a good match between the property mix along with the seller being someone he has long respected.

“They could have maximized the value by breaking it up independently, but that wasn’t what they wanted,” Burger said of National Resources. “To find a development company with the expertise to handle the different product mix that’s in this portfolio was really unique and quite limiting. So, as a result of that, we had the opportunity to negotiate a very attractive price.” 

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.