Corrections or additions?

This article by Barbara Fox was prepared for the September 17, 2003 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.

New/Old Owners

Once again, Mark Yeager of the Gale Company is an owner

of Princeton Forrestal Village. He has owned it, on and off, in five-year

cycles since 1993, and he has just bought it again for $39.6 million.

The Village was floundering when Yeager’s company, then called Gale

& Wentworth, began to manage it for the Bank of New York in 1991.

In the 1993-’94 time frame, Yeager joined a group of investors to

buy it at a fire sale price of $29 million and make it an outlet center.

Every time the Village changed hands after that, the seller made money.

In 1998 Yeager and the investors sold the property, the hotel to Starwood,

and the office and retail part to Praedium Princeton, an investment

group for Credit Suisse First Boston. Praedium paid $26 million, invested

about $10 million in a new office building, and took cash disbursements

over the five-year-period.

Nowdays, the office space is almost all rented, but the retail space

is 50 percent vacant. Joining with the Gale Company in the Village

purchase is the GE Partners Group.

"The property needs a long term stable ownership perspective,"

says Yeager. "Prior ownership had that, but funds run their life.

The project needed a new trategy and capital, and Praedium was not

in a good position to do that."

Yeager plans to reposition Rockingham Plaza as professional office

space and even build a pedestrian bridge from the parking garage.

Says Yeager: "We’re thrilled to be back in an ownership position."