The long-time owner of the former Bob’s Discount Furniture store at 460 Route 17 in Paramus recently parted ways with the property after nearly a decade of trying to land a permanent tenant at the commercial building.
A recent investigation by Jersey Digs found that an auto dealership group based out of North Bergen, Bram Auto Group, purchased the 38,400-square-foot building in mid-July for $9.8 million.
Steven Nussbaum, the president of commercial real estate firm Pasbjerg Development and the seller of the property, told Jersey Digs that the company had been working to find a permanent replacement for Bob’s Discount Furniture since the chain left the building 9.5 years ago. The property has since served as a temporary storefront for several retailers, including Spirit Halloween, and it served as a clinic during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Nussbaum said, but Pasbjerg was unable to secure a permanent tenant.
An archived report from 2015 in NJBIZ says that Bob’s Discount Furniture agreed to relocate from 460 Route 17 to 150 Route 17 in March of that year. The latter property had served as a storefront for outdoor furniture retailer Fortunoff, but it had not had a permanent tenant for six years.
The property at 460 Route 17 spans 1.3 acres and is located two blocks from a retail center anchored by Trader Joe’s. It is proximal to the Paramus Park shopping mall, a Land Rover dealership and Gaswerks Garage, an auto shop that specializes in air-cooled Porsches and other luxury imported vehicles. Records from the Bergen County Clerk’s Office show the property was last sold in 1986.
The latest buyer of the property, Bram Auto Group, agreed to purchase the property in May, two months before the transaction closed, Nussbaum said.
Property records made public by the Bergen County Clerk’s Office say that Plano, Texas-based Toyota Motor Credit Corporation served as the mortgagee in the transaction.
Bram Auto lists 15 dealerships in New York and New Jersey, including seven Toyota and Lexus dealerships in the tri-state area. In 2022, the firm reportedly purchased a building in Garden City, New York for $62.3 million. That building is anchored by Whole Foods and sits on six acres.
Bram Auto Group did not return a request for comment from Jersey Digs.
While the property at 460 Route 17 has been underutilized and served as a temporary storefront for several tenants over the last decade, the building itself has significant visibility and sits along one of the most lucrative retail corridors in the country.
Reports from the state’s Department of Transportation note that as of 2018, over 118,000 cars passed between Paramus, New Rochelle and Maywood along Route 17 daily, while a report from 2019 in NJ.com said that retail spending in Paramus was the highest of any ZIP code in the U.S.
