Ivy Equities.

Ivy Equities of Clifton, NJ has acquired a three-building office portfolio in Westchester County. NY in a $33.4 million transaction negotiated by Cushman & Wakefield's Financial Services Group based in Fast Rutherford, NJ. Financial Services arranged the transaction on behalf of insurer Principal Financial Group, based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Totaling 313,000 square feet, the multi-tenant portfolio includes a 117,000 square-foot building at 2975 Westchester Avenue in Purchase, NY. a 111,000 square-foot building at 411 Theodore Fremd Avenue in Rye, NY and an 85,000 square-foot building at 244 Westchester Avenue in White Plains, NY. 2975 Westchester Avenue is 75 percent occupied and will be repositioned in the near future. The stabilized Rye and White Plains properties both have occupancy rates in excess of 90 percent.

Principal Financial Group retained Cushman & Wakefield during the beginning of the fourth quarter of 1999 to handle the disposition. "Principal wanted the sale to close prior to year-end, and was cognizant of potential Y2K issues with a December 1999 closing," noted Gary Gabriel, a member of the Financial Services team, along with Andrew Merin, David Bernhaut and Jose Cruz. During 1999, Financial Services completed 800,000 square feet in dispositions for Principal Financial Services.

"We selected Ivy Equities because of the firm's previous performance in time-sensitive closings." Gabriel added. Ivy Equities controls more than 1.5 million square feet of office space in northern New Jersey and Westchester County. During the past three years, Financial Services has assisted the company with six acquisitions totaling approximately I million square feet.

According to Andrew Merin, executive director of Financial Services, the Ivy Equities acquisition reflects Westchester County's appeal for savvy, private investors. "REITs are all but out of the picture in Westchester County, and most other investors are skeptical of the extent of the region's recovery from the early 1990's," Merin noted, adding that the county's vacancy rate at the end of the third quarter of 1999 was a relatively high 18 percent.

"However, knowledgeable participants in the market recognize that a majority of the vacant space is contained in large, contiguous units,' he explained. "When you remove the large blocks and focus only on the market for small to mid-size tenants, the vacancy rate dips to near six percent. As a result, multi-tenant buildings like those included in the Principal Financial Group portfolio are prime investment opportunities for firms like Ivy Equities."