SJP Properties arranges Merrill Lynch NJ lease.

Merrill Lynch has signed a long-term lease with SJP Properties for 300,000 square feet at 95 Greene Street on the Jersey City Waterfront. The eight-story building was purchased from Colgate-Palmolive in July of 1999 and is currently being converted into Class A office space. Constructed in 1958, the building has floor plates of up to 38,000 square feet and is part of the more than eight million square-foot master-planned Colgate Center on the west bank of the Hudson River.

"The waterfront district is the 'Sixth Borough' of New York, and is benefiting from the extremely tight Manhattan market and a responsive, supportive Jersey City government," said Steven J. Pozycki, president of SJP Properties. "The short time it took to secure this lease is indicative of how strong the New York market is and how effectively SJP and Merrill Lynch have worked together over the past several years. We are proud of this association and the quality office space that we have developed for Merrill Lynch."

This is SJP's third major project with Merrill Lynch. Previous leases include 262,000 square feet at The Commons in Princeton in July of 1999 and 20,000 square feet at Somerset Corporate Center I in Bridgewater in 1997.

"We have worked with SJP in Princeton and Bridgewater, and are familiar with the exceptional quality of their buildings and their professionalism," said Michael R. Cowan, senior vice president of Merrill Lynch. "We are confident that SJP has the detail-oriented approach to make this transition seamless for our Jersey City operation."

95 Greene Street is adjacent to Merrill Lynch's current 590,000 square-foot office at 101 Hudson Street and will provide room for growth in Merrill Lynch's support services areas.

By locating this office in New Jersey, Merrill Lynch will benefit from a significantly lower tax structure and lower utility and operating costs. The building is in the Jersey City Urban Enterprise Zone, providing additional tax relief and other incentives for businesses that expand operations or relocate here. Other major corporations in the area include Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and American Express.

The architectural firm of Haines Lundberg Waehler (HLW) International has been retained by SJP to oversee redesign of the building for conversion to office use. The building is presently being stripped back to its concrete structure and the entire facility is being virtually reconstructed.

"We're repositioning the core to make the building more efficient, and installing state-of-the-art mechanical, electrical and telecommunications systems," Pozycki said. "There will also be parking available on the lower level."

Located adjacent to Exchange Place, 95 Greene Street is convenient to all modes of mass transportation, Newark International Airport, and the New Jersey Turnpike. The building's location, directly across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center and the World Financial Center, has excellent access to the Exchange Place PATH station and the NY Waterway ferry. A light rail stop, scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2000, is also just steps away. It is also adjacent to the Paulus Hook historic district.

SJP's other important waterfront development, Waterfront Corporate Center, is the result of an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the City of Hoboken. Plans for this public/private partnership call for SJP to construct a 1.1 million square-foot technologically-innovative office building adjacent to the Hoboken Terminal as part of Hoboken's South Waterfront project, a planned, mixed-use development of 2.3 million square feet on three new city blocks.