The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY Mellon) has sold a 141,000 sq ft data centre and office facility in New Jersey to US real estate firm The Stro Companies.

Financial details of the deal have not been released, but it is reported at US$7.3 million, according to Traded.co.

Stro Cos. has previously acquired other properties in the area around Florham Park where the data centre facility is located in the Garden State.

Jack Shulman, director of acquisitions and capital markets at Stro Cos, said: “This is an exciting project, one that everyone at Stro is looking forward to working on post-closing.

“Stro is very focused on acquiring properties adjacent to its existing ones. With 19 Vreeland being across the street from our 4 Vreeland property, this was a natural purchase for us.”

A JLL Capital Markets team including Jose Cruz, Michael Oliver, Steve Simonelli, Kevin O’Hearn, J.B. Bruno, Jordan Avanzato and Michael Kavanaugh represented the seller.

Debt was financed by Prudential Bank, led by SVP, chief lender for the New Jersey division, John Bailey.

New Jersey has for some time been in the news as the state tries to attract more Wall Street brands to its facilities.

However, the state is being challenged by other destinations, especially after a financial transaction tax proposal was unveiled at the end of last year, but since dropped from the 2021 state budget due to a clash with financial institutions. The tax could raise as much as $10 billion according to local assemblyman John McKeon.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, exchanges, trading firms and broker/dealers have warned legislators in New Jersey of the fallout they say a transaction tax could bring to the financial markets, the broader economy and their own businesses.

“Through those conversations, the financial industry has also been pushing to make New Jersey lawmakers aware of its ability to quickly pick up and move across state lines, if need be,” the research house has said.

The Coalition to Prevent the Taxing of Retirement Savings, which has been actively involved in those meetings, has 10 member firms including NYSE, Nasdaq, UBS, Cboe Global Markets Inc., MEMX LLC, IEX Group Inc., Virtu Financial Inc., Citadel Securities LLC, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. and data-center operator Equinix Inc.