ICYMI: Verizon Sells Massive Basking Ridge Complex

Verizon Communications has sold its massive operations complex in Basking Ridge in an equally as massive $650.3 million leaseback deal.

The telecommunications company sold the 1.4 million-square-foot facility to Mesirow Realty Sale-Leaseback Inc., a division of Mesirow Financial, a diversified financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, according to a press release from Cushman & Wakefield. Real estate services firm, and broker of the deal, Cushman & Wakefield called it the largest sale-leaseback ever completed in suburban New Jersey.

The Basking Ridge facility employs around 3,900 full-time employees and occupies about 135 acres of land. The complex houses a number of Verizon Communications businesses, including acting as the headquarters for its wholly owned wireless service provider Verizon Wireless, the release said.

As a part of the deal, Verizon will lease back the complex from Mesirow for a 20-year term. Cushman & Wakefield said it is among the highest prices per square foot of any suburban sale-leaseback in the United States.

“This real estate deal provides our company with immediate financial benefits and allows us to extract significant value from this asset while continuing to occupy the entirety of its office space,” John M. Vazquez, senior vice president and head of global real estate for Verizon, said in the release from Cushman & Wakefield. “Cushman & Wakefield achieved our strategic objectives by maximizing value and flexibility through the best possible deal structure.”

Verizon acquired the facility from Pfizer, which never occupied the complex, in 2005, according to a report from NJBiz.com. Prior to Pfizer, the property was owned by Pharmacia Corp., which was later acquired by Pfizer, and before that AT&T, which built the facility about 40 years earlier.