Silverstein and D'Lando of Angelic lease 24,488 s/f

Aldi has signed a 10-year lease for a new 24,488 s/f grocery store at Tonnelle Plaza. The space was formerly occupied by AJ Wright, a now-shuttered concept owned by TJX. The lease assignment from TJX provides for a s/f reduction to 20,435 s/f in 2017 after the expiration of the existing AJ Wright lease term. Aldi was represented by Gabriel Silverstein and Louis D'Lando of Angelic Real Estate and by Jon Stravitz of BIOC Commercial Real Estate. TJX was represented by Gregg Lurie of Creative Realty Group and by Robert Tramantano of GA Keen Realty Advisors. The landlord, Hartz Mountain, was represented internally by Deborah Stone. "This was a very long process for all involved," commented Silverstein Indeed, the first meetings on the prospective deal took place during 2011's New York ICSC National Conference, and the project took another year to get fully negotiated and signed by all sides. "It was a complicated transaction, though," Silverstein continued, "because it involved three parties, a lease assignment instead of a sublease, and an early lease extension coupled with a mid-term square footage reduction. It was a lot of effort but in the end it will be a great store for Aldi and for North Bergen." One last delay was thrown in by Hurricane Sandy, when just prior to final document signature the premises suffered some minor damage and had to be reinspected. This store is the deepest penetration Aldi has made to date into the West Hudson urban corridor opposite Manhattan. Aldi is also eligible for sales tax abatement as part of New Jersey's Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) program, for those items that were not already exempt from sales tax collection.