Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage Provides $27 Million for New Jersey Retail Center

NEW YORK, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage said it has provided $27 million in a fixed rate 10-year permanent financing for Riverfront Plaza, a retail center located in Hackensack, New Jersey (approximately 8 miles northwest of Manhattan). The funds will refinance debt on the property, which is owned by Riverfront Plaza, LLC, whose principals also own JD Construction Corp.

Riverfront Plaza is a 129,192 square-foot anchored neighborhood retail center located in a densely populated area of Northern New Jersey with nearby access to Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 46. The anchor tenant is a Shop Rite grocery store, and there are 18 in-line tenants, including Washington Mutual Bank, Radio Shack, H&R Block, and Hollywood Video. Developed in 1998 and completed in 2001, the plaza also includes two outparcel restaurants. The city of Hackensack is in Bergen County, New Jersey.

Riverfront Plaza, LLC, which acquired and developed the property from 1994 through 2001, is owned by the principals of JD Construction Corp. JDCC was founded by James D'Agostino in 1947 as Fidelity Builders, a residential developer, and became JD Construction Corp. in 1950. JDCC ventured into commercial development and general construction, and today is primarily engaged in real estate management, development, general construction, and construction management. JDCC is now operated by D'Agostino's daughter and sons.

"It's great to work with a company like JDCC," said Doug Mazer, a Director with Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage in New York. "Their attention to detail is clear from the property itself -- it's in fantastic condition and they've maintained an occupancy of at or near 100%. When it comes to construction and management they're definitely a leader."

"We enjoyed working with Wells Fargo," stated Jim D'Agostino with JDCC. "They know commercial real estate and they made this a painless process for us."

Alan Goodkin of Ackman-Ziff is the exclusive broker who represented the borrower during this transaction. "Wells Fargo has closed a number of transactions for our firm as applied for and we have been very happy with their execution."

The Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group is based in New York City with offices in Boston, Washington DC and Miami, and specializes in debt, mezzanine and equity financing for commercial real estate. In 2004, the firm successfully arranged more than $2.75 billion of debt, mezzanine and equity capital for real estate transactions.

Wells Fargo Commercial Mortgage (wellsfargo.com/cmg) provides lending, servicing and advisory solutions to the commercial real estate industry. Their customer base includes a broad spectrum of middle market investors and developers throughout the United States.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $436 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance to more than 23 million customers from more than 6,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and elsewhere internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the United States to receive the highest possible credit rating, "Aaa," from Moody's Investors Service.

CONTACT Joe Kerwin 760/918-2700