Gebroe-Hammer: Multifamily Market Very Active in Elizabeth and The Oranges

ELIZABETH, NJ—Thanks to what it terms as a “seemingly endless tenant pipeline,” investment activity in the urban multifamily markets of Elizabeth, East Orange and Orange, NJ markets have been very strong of late, according to investment brokerage firm Gebroe-Hammer Associates.

The Livingston, NJ-based firm reports that in the past 12 weeks it has arranged 11 urban-core sales totaling more than $36.85 million that involved more than 226 units spanning Elizabeth, East Orange and Orange markets.

The largest transaction recorded by Gebroe-Hammer in these emerging submarkets involved a newly constructed mid-rise in Elizabeth that garnered more than $256,000 per unit. The $10.25-million transaction for the 40 fully occupied units at 737-745 North Broad St. was arranged by Gebroe Hammer EVP Greg Pine and SVP Stephen Tragash.

Due to its sleek all-white façade, the building proved attractive to investors because of its curb appeal and mix of market-unique one and two-bedroom open-floorplan layouts. Each includes the latest amenity and design appointments, including an in-unit washer and dryer, hardwood flooring and kitchens with stainless-steel appliances, granite countertops and ceramic floors. Situated at the corner of North Broad Street and Clinton Place, the property is less than half a mile from North Elizabeth Train Station’s NJ Transit service to Midtown Manhattan and points throughout New Jersey along the North Jersey Coastline and Northeast Corridor lines.

“Elizabeth continues its ascent and investors continue to take notice—it is a city on the rise, mirroring a similar transformation that has yielded sweeping building-landscape changes and population-demographic diversification in nearby Hudson and Essex counties,” says Tragash, the brokerage firm’s Elizabeth market specialist. “And like its urban-core counterparts, Elizabeth checks off all the boxes for today’s upper-income professionals and empty nesters seeking a walkable apartment-rental lifestyle near mass transit connectivity and limitless lifestyle amenities.”

In addition to the sale of the North Broad Street building, Tragash recently arranged two other Elizabeth multi-family investment transactions that included a North Elizabeth property sale, as well as the trade of a three-story Tudor-style building with 27 units at 250 W. Jersey Ave.

In the nearby “Oranges” of Essex County, Gebroe-Hammer’s executive managing director David Oropeza matched the firm’s Elizabeth sales activity with $15.75 million in sales of 123 apartment-rental units. The latest transactions involved 43 units at 41 Main St., in Orange that sold for $4.525 million, as well as 28 units at 100 Chestnut St. ($3.5 million); 16 units at 492 Park Ave. ($2.2 million) and 12 units at 78 Harrison St. ($2.025 million), all in East Orange. In Irvington, Tragash orchestrated the recent trade of 15 units at 153-163 Elmwood Ave., for $1.7 million, which calculated into a price-per-unit of $113,333.

Rounding out Gebroe-Hammer’s Essex and Union County sales activity during the recent 12-week timeframe were two additional sales in Belleville and Plainfield. The Belleville trade encompassed 24 units at Stephens Street Apartments ($3.78 million) in a transaction arranged by EVP Nicholas Nicolaou and SVP Adam Zweibel. The Plainfield transaction, which was arranged by Zweibel, involved 16 units at 346-350 Franklin Pl. in a deal valued at $1.56 million.

On April 23, Gebroe-Hammer reported that it arranged the $16.59-million sale of 134 multi-family units at Alpine Village Apartments in Wantage. The transaction, in which Tragash exclusively represented the seller, Alpine Village Apartments LLC, and procured the buyer, a private investor, also included a 17-acre land parcel for the construction of additional units.

Located at 4 Center St. in the Borough Center, Alpine Village features a mix of oversized one- and two-bedroom layouts. Constructed in 1970, the garden-style community is located at the crossroads of Route 23 and 284, the focal point for the region’s primary business and shopping districts.