The financial particulars of the transaction were not disclosed. However, the construction cost of the New Jersey portion of the portfolio, which represents about 60% of the residential units involved, has been pegged at $2.1 billion including ancillary mixed uses, mostly retail.

Under the terms of the deal, Roseland and the Miami-based Lennar, one of the country's biggest homebuilders, will operate as joint venture partners. Roseland will manage ongoing development of the sites, while Lennar will oversee the marketing and branding of the properties.

"Our joint venture will generate more than $2 billion in sales over the next five or six years," says Brad Klatt, a Roseland principal. "It will continue to spearhead job growth, home appreciation and new ratables in each community."

Klatt also says that the venture "will enable us to set an aggressive schedule to complete the entire Port Imperial project. The financial benefit of the transaction makes us one of the most strongly capitalized residential companies in the Northeast. It will allow us to look for and acquire new properties with Lennar as our development partner in the region."

"For a publicly traded company of Lennar's stature to seek us out as a joint venture partner speaks volumes about what we've accomplished at these locations," says Marshall Tycher, another Roseland principal. "This is particularly true of our Port Imperial site, where we pioneered an industry-wide interest in the untapped potential of the underutilized riverfront and created a market where one previously didn't exist."

The plum property involved in the transaction is Port Imperial, which stretches out along two miles of formerly industrial waterfront property in Weehawken and West New York. The residential unit count currently stands at 1,300 with room for several hundred more. As part of the deal, some 350 current rental apartments at Port Imperial will be converted to condos.