Deer Creek Apartments, a 288-unit apartment-home community in Plainsboro, N.J., was among the multi-family sales arranged by Gebroe-Hammer Associates during Q1 2016.

LIVINGSTON, NJ—The multifamily-investing rush reached a new level during the first quarter along the New Jersey/Philadelphia corridor, where Gebroe-Hammer Associates closed more than $578 million in transactions. The firm recorded 30 sales involving a total of 3,590 units during the three-month timeframe, averaging over two sales per week and breaking records previously set during the course of its 40-year history.

The latest trades extended all along the 112-mile corridor from Philadelphia to Northern New Jersey, and east from Philadelphia to Central Jersey and the Ocean and Monmouth County shores.

“Favorable multifamily investing fundamentals – from demographics and prevailing housing/lifestyle ideologies to a static low-interest-rate environment – continue to feed brisk trading and a record-setting transaction pace,” says Ken Uranowitz, Gebroe-Hammer president. “Demand is significantly outpacing supply of for-sale product, prompting buyers to aggressively pursue marketed and off-market properties with a sense of urgency I have not seen in the 40-plus years I'm in the business.”

In March alone, Gebroe-Hammer's area market specialists established new firm benchmarks by arranging sales totaling more than $364 million and 2,031 units. Overall, six of the properties were strategically located class-B garden-apartment communities prime for value-add repositioning. Other prominent sales included four separate buildings totaling 264 units in Essex County's East Orange, while four other sales involving 543 units were located in Maywood, Wood-Ridge, Ridgewood and Wayne within the high-barrier-to-entry Bergen/Passaic County submarket. There were also 26 units sold in Philadelphia and 21 units traded in Warren County, N.J.

“Within the Northern New Jersey submarkets, investor demand and tenant occupancies have struck a nice balance. Both are keeping pace with the existing apartment-housing stock dominated by pre-1970s-era buildings and the sweeping introduction of new construction and revitalization initiatives in urban and suburban areas, especially those adjacent to or within walking distance to mass transportation hubs,” says David Oropeza, managing director. “Market-rate rents continue to climb and aren't expected to decline anytime in the near future.”

Throughout the densely-populated counties of Hudson and Union, Gebroe-Hammer exclusively represented the sellers and/or identified the buyers in 14 separate deals accounting for a total of 652 units. The properties were located in Rahway, New Providence, Jersey City, Bayonne, Elizabeth, Union City and West New York.

In Central and Southern New Jersey – which has a lower concentration of multifamily properties vs. Hudson and Union County – the firm arranged three sales, in Middlesex County's Woodbridge, Plainsboro and Piscataway. These encompassed 1,488 units, while in the Jersey Shore submarket's municipalities of Brick, Asbury Park and Long Branch, 577 units traded.

“Multifamily properties that run the full spectrum in terms of condition, amenities and upgrades are performing and trading at levels well above what was once the historical norm,” says managing director Joseph Brecher. “While rising interest rates – commercial real estate's nemesis – could eventually impact debt costs in the distant future, the Fed has toned down its earlier predictions about the frequency of its increases, which bodes well for investor appetite that is already at peak levels.”

The latest trades extended all along the 112-mile corridor from Philadelphia to Northern New Jersey, and east from Philadelphia to Central Jersey and the Ocean and Monmouth County shores.

Instant Insights /

Gebroe-Hammer Racks Up 30 MF Sales in First Quarter Worth $578+ Million

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