Former Bear Stearns Data Center Sold

It looks like JP Morgan Chase has sold one of the two Bear Stearns data centers it acquired in March 2008 when the investment bank collapsed.

Last week a unit of Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) acquired a portfolio of 16 properties totaling about 2.9 million square feet from J.P. Morgan Chase. The deal included a "650,000-square foot office campus/data center site in Whippany, New Jersey."

When Bear Stearns was on the brink of failure in March 2008, JP Morgan bought most of the firm's assets in a deal that was initally announced as a bargain-basement $236 million, but was later adjusted to about $1.2 billion. The assets included two Bear Stearns data centers, including one that was part of a 600,000 square foot campus in Whippany.

JP Morgan is leasing back about 60 percent of the square footage it sold to Brookfield. But the Brookfield press release describes the Whippany data center/office complex as one of two "meaningful value-add opportunities" in the portfolio. The other was the 800,000 square foot 712 Main building in downtown Houston. Brookfield did not respond to inquiries seeking further details on the Whippany property and the company's plans for it.