Residential Units Trade for $28M in Three Transactions

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JERSEY CITY-In three separate transactions, a total of 414 multifamily residential units have traded for a number “in excess of $28 million,” according to Mel Gebroe, principal and co-founder of the Livingston-based Gebroe-Hammer Associates. The deals include a nine-building package in Jersey City, a mid-rise building in Elizabeth and a garden apartment complex in Piscataway.

Brokers from the firm arranged the trio of deals in Hudson, Union and Middlesex counties in New Jersey. The transactions were orchestrated by G-H executive vice president Joel Schwartz, vice presidents Scott Callahan and Gregg Levey for the Jersey City sale, managing director Robert Ploshnick for the Elizabeth sale and vice president Joseph Brecher for the Piscataway deal.

Of the nine buildings in the Jersey City package, three are located on Gifford Avenue, and the rest at other nearby locations. Comprised of 281 fully rented units, all are mid-rise brick properties with proximity to the city’s Journal Square. Eight of the buildings were sold for cash above a new first mortgage, according to Schwartz, with financing for the ninth building involving cash above the transfer of an existing first mortgage. The buyer was JC Properties of West New York; the seller was not identified.

The Elizabeth sale involved Wymor House, a 30-unit, all-brick mid-rise building at 350 Elmora Ave. in the Union County city. Currently fully rented, the building sold for more than $90,000 per unit, or a number in the $2.8-million range. The financing involved cash over a new first mortgage obtained by the buyer, who was not identified. Schwartz had sold the asset to the present seller, also not identified, in the late 1980s.

The Piscataway deal involved the Mayflower Co-op Apartments at 260 River Rd. there. Financing for the sale of the 103-unit garden complex involved cash above the underlying co-op mortgage. According to Schwartz, Gebroe-Hammer sold shares of co-op stock instead of selling the property as conventional real estate.

“The completion of this deal required us to obtain an exclusive in order to assure that the intricacies of the transaction would be understood and resolved by all parties,” Schwartz says. “Many complex issues regarding mortgage financing had to be amicably negotiated by all of the principals and lenders.” The seller was the cooperative itself. The buyer was not identified.