For most of two centuries, people drove to the corner of Chestnut Ridge Road and Tice Boulevard in Woodcliff Lake for apples.
They still do. These days, the apples just cost a little more and come with a charger.
Tice’s Corner, the 120,000-square-foot open-air shopping center anchored by Apple, has been sold to WS Development, one of the country’s largest privately held developers, for $109.5 million.
David Adam Realty and Cushman & Wakefield, which arranged the deal, announced last week. The brokers called it one of New Jersey’s largest single-asset retail transactions of the past decade.
The center sits on the old Tice’s Farm, a Bergen County landmark that dates to 1808. Generations of families made the fall trip for its apples, cider, pumpkins and doughnuts. Over the years, as development squeezed in around it, the farm sold off land, and the shopping center eventually rose on the spot.
WS Development, based in Massachusetts, says Tice’s Corner carries that farm legacy forward.
Today, the center has 28 stores and restaurants covering fashion, beauty, home, technology and dining. Tenants include Apple, Anthropologie, J.Crew, Free People, Madewell, Athleta, Bluemercury, Pottery Barn and Ethan Allen.
The Apple store has its own bit of history. It opened in November 2001, just days after the first iPod went on sale. That makes it one of the company’s earliest retail locations.
Joanna Manfro, Managing Director of Northeast Retail at Cushman & Wakefield, represented WS Development. She said the property never really hit the open market.
“Tice’s Corner is a generational retail asset that had been held by the same legacy ownership for decades,” she said. “When the opportunity for new ownership surfaced, it was a highly competitive process that came together within days, without the asset ever becoming broadly marketed.”
The seller, WS Tice’s Inc., was represented by David Waldman, President of David Adam Realty.
According to the brokers, the center has real room to grow as leases roll over in the coming years. That gives the new owner a chance to bring rents up to market and reshape the tenant mix. It’s the kind of scarce, high-quality retail investors keep paying a premium for, especially in one of Bergen County’s wealthiest and most supply-constrained markets.
The company says it will build on the existing lineup of national tenants while adding in-demand brands and local businesses in retail, beauty, wellness and dining. Down the road, it also plans art displays, events, outdoor gathering spaces and other upgrades.
