The five-story office and retail building at 20 Nassau St. has been sold to Graduate Hotels, a company that develops hotels in college towns across America.
The sale of the property to Graduated Hotels has been closed, according to a representative from the building’s management.
Currently, the office and retail building consists of 13 stores and more than 100 office suites. The suites have various psychologist and counselor offices.
“We were surprised by it,” said one business owner who declined to be named. “We are not going to have a store. I am not going to look for more expensive real estate in Princeton. This was a very affordable spot.”
The business owner said their existing lease is being honored, but that it would not be renewed.
“I found out about the sale a week before Nov. 8 from a customer,” the owner said.
Another business owner, who did not want to be named as well, said they did not have any complaints with the sale or information process. The owner had met with representatives from Graduate Hotels last week.
“They had a meeting with tenants to tell everybody what is going on,” the owner said. They declined to comment on the whether the business would stay in Princeton.
The 20 Nassau St. property is comprised of four lots. Combined the four lots are assessed at $10.5 million and generate $244,858 in property tax revenue, according to property tax records.
Some of the businesses whose leases were up had been offered month-to-month renewals.
“My lease was up and was given a choice of monthly renewal and that is what I took,” said an anonymous business owner. “I think the representatives from Graduate Hotels have done a really good job about [being] empathetic. I thought it would be more corporate America and it was not like that.”
Public records filed at the Mercer County Clerk’s office stated that GPNJ Owner LLC is the buyer of the Nassau Street property with the parent company being AJ Capital Partners.
AJ Capital Partners is an investment firm in Chicago that develops hotel destinations.
Ben Weprin is the founder of AJ Capital Partners and Graduate Hotels.
According to Graduate Hotel officials, the hotel chain operates 21 hotels in locations around the country.
“I learned about this sale about two weeks ago,” said Peter Crowley, president and CEO of the Princeton Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce. “We have two really nice hotels in the Peacock Inn and the Nassau Inn right beside that downtown area. I am not sure that we need another hotel, but that being said, I am for more economic development being brought downtown.”
He said he would not assume anything right now, because people do not know what the property will become.
“Parking is an issue in downtown and probably would be a key discussion topic if anything was going to be done with that building,” Crowley said.
