Princeton Forrestal Village is officially on the market. The 549,337-square-foot complex at Route 1 and College Road in Plainsboro is up for sale for an amount that has yet to be made public.
The 42-acre retail and office campus was, however, last sold to the Gale Company and GE Partners in 2003 for $39.6 million. General asking rents, according to Jim Nugent of Gale’s Edison office, are $24.50 per square foot.
Forrestal Village, today a collection of restaurants, retail outlets, and corporate offices, first opened in 1986, primarily as a mall for upscale retail outlet stores. The village underwent $8 million in capital improvements in 2007, and over the past several years has maintained a fairly consistent tenant list, including restaurants Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Tre Piani, and Salt Creek Grille, and Can Do Fitness. However, there are roughly 56,000 square feet of vacant space.
The Westin Hotel is not owned by Gale and is not part of the sale.
According to Jeff Dunne of CBRE’s New York New York Capital Markets Group, which acts as the exclusive advisor for the sale, the lease has expired for the site. Dunne says the advantages of Forrestal Village are its steady tenants and more than 400,000 square feet of residential development rights.
Kevin Welsh, one of the agents in charge of the sale with Dunne and David Gavin, says that given the property’s proximity to the coming University Medical Center site “there exists tremendous demand for medical office space in the vicinity.” Princeton Forrestal Village’s ownership is currently building out space for Surgical Specialists at Princeton, a 12,400 SF surgical center, which should act as a draw for additional medical users.
