Press Release

FAIRFIELD 80 OFFICE CENTER OUTPERFORMS THE MARKET IMPROVING OCCUPANCY BY 23.4% SINCE BEING ACQUIRED IN JULY 2007

FAIRFIELD, NEW JERSEY - FEBRUARY 3, 2009  Fairfield 80 Office Center (“Fairfield 80”), has outperformed its competition within the Route 46 / Route 23 submarket (“Market”) improving its occupancy to 88% from 71.3% over a period of 18 months.  Fairfield 80, informally known as the Aetna Building, is a Class A, four-story office building totalling approximately 111,360 square feet located just off Interstate 80 at 55 Lane Road in Fairfield, New Jersey.  Presently Fairfield 80 is 88% leased, as compared to the Market’s average occupancy of 80%, as reported by CoStar, a real estate information provider.  More noteworthy is that the Market’s occupancy since July 2007 has remained virtually unchanged, beginning at 79% and today is approximately 80% occupied. 

Cofinance Inc., (Cofinance”), an active investor/developer focused on opportunistic real estate investments in the United States and Europe, in a joint-venture with RiverOak Investment Corp., LLC (“RiverOak”), a private equity real estate fund, purchased Fairfield 80 with the intent of improving upon Fairfield 80’s occupancy via intensive asset management, a focused capital improvement program and an aggressive marketing strategy.  Morgan Property Management, LLC, an affiliate of Cofinance, provides property management services.  Michael Staskiewicz, Managing Director of the Rutherford office of Newmark Knight Frank, was retained as the leasing agent in March 2008.

Prior to acquiring Fairfield 80, Cofinance, working closely with the seller, negotiated two significant deals.  First, Cofinance finalized a new lease with Konica Minolta Business Solutions (“Konica”) for 14,850 square feet on the fourth floor.  Konica is a leader in business equipment and software solutions with over 90 locations in the United States and over 4,000 employees. Second, it negotiated a deal in principle to renew Aetna’s lease early for an additional seven years while consolidating their tenancy to the second floor.  As a result of this deal, Cofinance was able to recapture 13,450 square feet of flexible first floor space that can be easily configured into many different floor plans for replacement tenants.  While these transactions did not materially increase Fairfield 80’s occupancy, Cofinance was able to stabilize over 40% of the leased space with leading, blue-chip tenancy.

During its ownership, Cofinance has successfully leased over 16,200 square feet to three new tenants.  Continuity Logic signed a lease for 3,550 square feet on the third floor.  GZA GeoEnvironmental signed a lease for approximately 7,500 square feet on the fourth floor and will use the office as the headquarters for the firm’s Northern NJ operations.  Most recently, First Evergreen / Saavoy List Management, an investment firm, signed a lease for approximately 5,100 square feet.  Cofinance’s efforts to attract and retain tenants have not gone unnoticed.  “We are excited to be here at Fairfield 80” says Jim Geary of Konica.  “We have been able to attract and retain better talent and employment turnover has significantly gone down.  Management has been professional, flexible and friendly, which was the deciding factor in completing our lease.  The building is professionally managed and we are thrilled with the building amenities, especially the café.”  Jim also added, “The President & CEO was very pleased with the appearance of the building during a recent visit from Japan.”  Furthermore, Staskiewicz of Newmark explains that “Fairfield 80 is doing extremely well despite challenging market conditions brought about by the economy and credit crisis.  The team at Cofinance are seasoned real estate professionals and know how to make tenants happy, which is critically important today.”

In conjunction with its leasing efforts, Cofinance has completed several upgrades to raise the profile of the Property.  Most significantly, it has overseen a lobby upgrade that included replacing furniture, installing new carpet and plants and opening a fitness center as an amenity to the building, and which will also include a signage upgrade in 2009. 

“We are very pleased with the performance of Fairfield 80, our first Essex County office investment.  With our lobby upgrade we have been able to enhance the Property’s core selling points, which are its flexible floor plates, on-site café, abundant parking ratio and close proximity and access to I-80.  We are excited about our prospects for the new year,” stated James J. Maurer, President of Cofinance Inc.  Cofinance has completed acquisitions during the past 24 months in New York City, Northern New Jersey and Florida totalling $110 million.  Despite the highly competitive real estate market, Cofinance, in partnership with sophisticated capital like RiverOak, has been able to locate and control unique opportunistic investments in highly sought-after markets. 

Cofinance is an investor in and developer of residential, office, industrial, and retail projects throughout the United States.  Formed in June of 1983, the strategy of Cofinance is to identify and acquire well-located properties that are affected by non-real estate factors and complex situations, define a focused plan to resolve such factors and situations, execute the plan and then sell the property.

Jean-Claude Pick, the CEO and founding principal of Cofinance Inc., has been involved in all aspects of real estate development, investment, and operation throughout the United States, France, England and Holland.  Mr. Pick is also President and founding principal of Cofinance SA, based in Paris, France.  The holdings of Cofinance SA, include hotels, office buildings, shopping centers, retirement communities, and a full service property management company. Since their founding, Cofinance SA, and Cofinance Inc., have been involved in projects with an aggregate value of over $2 billion. 

James J. Maurer joined Cofinance Inc. in June of 2004.  During his twenty four-year career as a real estate professional, Mr. Maurer has established a reputation as a highly successful developer of complex real estate investments.  Mr. Maurer is well known in the industry for his innovative solutions and his development and implementation of comprehensive business plans and operating strategies.

The parent company of Cofinance Inc. is CofiMorgan SA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cofinance Group.  Cofinance Group is a Luxembourg company owned by Jean Claude Pick and a family trust managed by the Maitland Group (“Maitland”).  Maitland was founded in 1976 as the overseas advisor of major South African international institutional investors and has since developed into a multi-national company, with offices in London, Paris, Geneva, Isle of Man, and Luxembourg. Maitland, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, manages and advises on investments well in excess of $1 billion.

Headquartered in Stamford, CT, RiverOak Investment Corp., LLC is a real estate investment fund sponsor that occupies a vital and unique niche in the universe of equity players.  RiverOak insures a competitive advantage for high net worth investors by bringing institutional experience to a traditionally entrepreneurial model and employing strategic targeting methodology.  RiverOak funds invest in gap equity positions of $2 million to $5 million per transaction in deals that are typically sized in the $8 million to $50 million range.  RiverOak’s projects are all located in the Boston-to-Washington corridor. “We specialize in diversification and complex projects requiring significant asset management expertise where operating results and cash flow can be significantly improved,” said Stephen DeNardo, Managing Director of RiverOak Investment Corp., who along with Managing Director George Yerrall, manage all aspects of RiverOak’s business.

Fairfield 80 is the first of two “one-off” joint-ventures between Cofinance and RiverOak.  Due to the success of its prior ventures, including Fairfield 80, and in light of investment opportunities brought about by current market events, Cofinance and RiverOak are launching a new joint-venture called Cofinance-RiverOak Realty Partners, which is solely dedicated to invest in and stabilize distressed real estate investments primarily located throughout the Boston-to-Washington corridor. 

For additional information about Fairfield 80, please contact Michael Staskiewicz of Newmark Knight Frank at (201) 842-6700.  For additional information about Cofinance and its new venture with RiverOak, please contact James Maurer of Cofinance at (201) 489-1177.

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