Trust Co. building price tag is $42M

Originally appeared in the Jersey Journal on Thursday, January 11, 2007

By JARRETT RENSHAW

The old Trust Company building - once the tallest building in Jersey City and a reminder of Journal Square's commercial past - is on the selling block once more.

The price tag is $42 million, according to officials.

The sale posting comes less than two years after Journal Square Properties LLC, a subsidiary of New York-based Sackman Enterprises, bought the 84-year-old building from the Trust Company of New Jersey Bank.

The building, located at 35 Journal Square, is roughly 70 percent vacant. Its largest and most visible tenant remains North Fork Bank, which occupies roughly 10 percent of the building.

The 12-story, 201,000-square-foot building is currently being marketed as office space, but a residential conversion is not out of the question, said Paul Smadbeck, director of sales at Massey Knakal Realty Services, the firm handling the sale.

City officials are keeping their fingers crossed the building remains office space to help reinvigorate the office market in Journal Square. But the first people to look at the building at private showings were only interested in a residential conversion, city officials said.

The $42 million asking price could be a bit high, city officials said, pointing to the recent sale of 26 Journal Square for just over $14 million.