JLL arranges $290M refinancing for Whole Foods- and Target-anchored retail center

NEW YORK, April 25, 2023 – JLL’s Capital Markets group announced today that it has arranged $290 million in refinancing for Bergen Town Center, a one-million-square-foot shopping center anchored by Whole Foods and Target and located in Paramus, New Jersey.

JLL exclusively represented the borrower, Urban Edge Properties, to secure the loan through New York Life Insurance Company and MetLife Investment Management.

Built in 1957, Bergen Town Center is currently 97-percent-leased by more than 70 unique retail tenants. Investment grade tenancy accounts for 44% of the retail GLA. In addition to its Whole Foods and Target anchors, notable tenants include ULTA, Chase Bank, Kohl’s, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Burlington, Nike, H&M, CVS, Ruth’s Chris and more. The center provides a weighted average remaining lease term of 6.8 years and a weighted average lease tenure of 9.6 years. The property includes 4,500 parking spaces and welcomes over 11 million annual customers.

Bergen Town Center is set within one of the country’s most productive retail submarkets with annual retail sales higher than any other zip code in the United States. The center benefits from frontage along Route 4, which is Paramus’s most heavily trafficked retail corridor and boasts average daily traffic counts of more than 150,000 vehicles per day. Other major transit nodes include Highway 17, Interstate-80 and the Garden State Parkway. Located just nine miles west of New York City, the property offers seamless access from Manhattan in under an hour via mass transit. Additionally, 11.3 million consumers are within a 20-mile radius of the property, and the average Bergen County household income is $167,050.

The JLL Capital Markets Debt Advisory team was led by Senior Managing Directors Scott Aiese, Claudia Steeb, and Jon Mikula and Director Alex Staikos.

“Bergen Town Center is a best-in-class asset operating in one of the strongest retail markets in the country,” said Aiese. “Under the astute and hands-on management of Urban Edge, it is well-positioned to continue to thrive and we are pleased to have delivered accretive financing from lenders who share in ownership’s commitment to providing a stellar brick and mortar shopping experience.”

JLL’s Capital Markets group is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment and sales advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

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Urban Edge Properties is a NYSE listed real estate investment trust focused on managing, acquiring, developing, and redeveloping retail real estate in urban communities, primarily in the Washington, D.C. to Boston corridor. Urban Edge owns 76 properties totaling 17.2 million square feet of gross leasable area.

New York Life Insurance Company (www.newyorklife.com), a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest¹ mutual life insurance company in the United States and one of the largest life insurers in the world. Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments, and long-term care insurance. New York Life has the highest financial strength ratings currently awarded to any U.S. life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies.²

MetLife Investment Management, the institutional asset management business of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), is a global public fixed income, private capital and real estate investment manager providing tailored investment solutions to institutional investors worldwide. MetLife Investment Management provides public and private pension plans, insurance companies, endowments, funds and other institutional clients with a range of bespoke investment and financing solutions that seek to meet a range of long-term investment objectives and risk-adjusted returns over time. MetLife Investment Management has over 150 years of investment experience and, as of December 31, 2022, had $579.8 billion in total assets under management.³

¹Based on revenue as reported by “Fortune 500 ranked within Industries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual),” Fortune magazine, 5/23/2022. For methodology, please see  http://fortune.com/fortune500/.

²Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 10/18/2022: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody’s Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor’s (AA+).

³ Total AUM is comprised of all MetLife general account and separate account assets and unaffiliated/third party assets, at estimated fair value, managed by MIM.