Deutsche Bank Ups Space to 282,000 SF

Originally appeared in GlobeSt.com on 09/15/06

By Eric Peterson

Harborside Plaza 1JERSEY CITY-Mack-Cali Realty Corp. officials announced late yesterday that “a major international bank” had taken an additional 53,727 sf at the Cranford-based REIT’s Harborside Financial Center Plaza 1 on this city’s waterfront. Company officials did not identify the tenant, citing a confidentiality agreement, but sources confirm that the tenant is Deutsche Bank. The latter is in fact currently listed as a major tenant at the building.

The expansion follows on the heels of a related transaction in August. In that one, Deutsche Bank signed a lease for a total of 228,193 sf in the 400,000-sf eight-story building, a deal encompassing a 90,000-sf renewal and an expansion of more than 138,000 sf. That signing replaced a lease that was set to expire at the end of 2006, and this latest expansion bumps Deutsche Bank’s occupancy in the building to nearly 282,000 sf.

“This transaction is an indication of the success of our repositioning efforts at this Harborside building,” says Mitchell E. Hersh, Mack-Cali’s president/CEO. “Harborside Financial Center has become an attractive office location.

The repositioning and modernization referenced at Plaza 1 was completed earlier this year, and the latest Deutsche Bank expansion brings the building to more than 94% occupancy, according to information released by Mack-Cali. Altogether, the REIT has more than 4.3 million sf in Jersey City, a portfolio that’s currently 98.9% leased. Of that total, about 3.6 million sf is tied up in the multi-building Harborside complex.

The expansion, which carries a term of approximately 10 years, was pursuant to an option in the lease signed in August. Combined, the deals will keep Deutsche Bank in the building into 2017. David Maurer-Hollaender led a team of New Jersey and New York brokers from CB Richard Ellis in representing the tenant, while Mack-Cali was represented in-house. Further terms were not released.