A Daily Look at the Movers and Shakers in Commercial Real Estate
By Tony Wilbert
In one of New Jersey’s largest office transactions, Mack-Cali Realty has a deal to sell a Jersey City high-rise for $380 million to The Birch Group, which has been snapping up properties in the Garden State. A New York-based commercial property investor and operator that’s recently added major office buildings to its portfolio has hired a former JLL and Mack-Cali Realty executive to guide its acquisition and leasing efforts moving forward.
The Birch Group of Nanuet, New York, has hired Christopher DeLorenzo as executive vice president. DeLorenzo joined Birch from JLL, where he has worked since March 2018 as executive vice president for the global brokerage’s New Jersey brokerage operations.
For the 20 years prior to working at JLL, he served as an executive vice president at Mack-Cali, where he was involved in more than 1,500 transactions with an aggregate value of over $2.5 billion and most recently oversaw leasing and asset management for a portfolio totaling 26.2 million square feet.
Birch said it brought DeLorenzo aboard at a pivotal time as the firm expands its portfolio of trophy assets, having acquired nearly $800 million of commercial properties since 2019.
In April, Birch paid $255 million for an 843,300-square-foot portfolio that includes Class A office buildings located at 51, 101, 103 and 150 JFK Parkway in Short Hills, New Jersey. Birch acquired the portfolio from DeLorenzo’s former employer Mack-Cali.
Birch also is poised to acquire a trophy office tower from Mack-Cali, which has reached an agreement to sell its high-rise 101 Hudson St. in Jersey City to Birch for $380 million. If the deal closes, it would break the state’s record for the largest single-office property transaction, which dates back to October 2011.
As Birch works to expand its portfolio of institutional-quality commercial properties, “Chris’ experience both on the brokerage and ownership sides of the business is the perfect fit to support our evolution,” Mark Meisner, president and founder of Birch, said in a statement.
Source: CoStar