Stewart of Cronheim Mortgage arranges $42.857 million sale: Super Wal-Mart parcel

Andrew Stewart of David Cronheim Mortgage Corp. has arranged the sale of the Super Wal-Mart leased parcel at Republic Plaza, a 249,842 s/f shopping center. The purchase price was $42.857 million. The subject property is a 216,519 s/f Wal-Mart store that is within a shopping center that also includes Panera Bread, GameStop, Maggie Moos, Chipotle and Sleepy's. Pad sites count Chili's, Houlihan's, and Bank of America as tenants. The original plans called for Wal-Mart and an additional anchor store. After several years of negotiations with the town for approvals and subsequently various retail tenants, Wal-Mart agreed to increase the size of their original 157,191 s/f store by an additional 59,328 s/f. The entire shopping center encompasses 25 acres and was formally the Polytechnic University campus on Rte. 110, just south of Republic Airport. According to Stewart, "The developer, Poly-Jaz Realty, did an outstanding job navigating their way through numerous obstacles of all kinds, including regulatory, municipal, engineering and legal in order to deliver Wal-Mart a prime location for a store that is sure to succeed for many years to come." Founded in 1897, David Cronheim Mortgage Corp. and its affiliate companies located in Chatham, N.J. provide an array of real estate services. Cronheim Mortgage maintains correspondent and/or servicing relationships with twelve institutional investors, mostly insurance companies, and currently services in excess of $1.7 billion of debt. Unlike many other commercial mortgage banks that lack capital sources in the current environment, Cronheim and its insurance company correspondents have substantial debt and equity capital to invest in quality real estate. Many of Cronheim's current mortgage investors are pricing below alternative debt source.