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Coffee to Condos


Tuesday, December 9, 2003

Pinnacle Downtown, an urban redevelopment subsidiary of Pinnacle Group of Cos., Millburn, N.J., has agreed to buy the former Maxwell House coffee plant site in Hoboken, N.J., for $76 million.

When the deal is finalized next month, Pinnacle will be the majority owner of the 24-acre site along the Hudson River. Nearly five years ago, Gotham Partners LP, a New York hedge fund, and Hoboken developers George Vallone and Daniel Gans bought the property for $18 million, beating out Pinnacle Group and other contenders, according to Brian M. Stolar, chief executive of Pinnacle Group and its redevelopment unit.

Messrs. Vallone and Gans will remain minority owners of the site through a joint venture with Pinnacle. The group plans to build 832 condominium units, 210,000 square feet of retail and office space and 1,500 parking spaces. Next month, the dilapidated neon-lined coffee cup sign bearing Maxwell House¥s slogan, "Good to the Last Drop", will come down along with all but one building, which will serve as a temporary office, to make way for the $500 million, five-year project. As part of the project-dubbed Maxwell on the Hudson- the developers also plan to restore a beach and pier, as well as the baseball diamond at Elysian Park.

Mr. Stolar expects the condos will sell for $400 to $500 a square foot. So far about 1,600 people are on the condo reservation list, he says.