NEW YORK CITY—Treetop Development has completed the $60 millionsale of a portfolio of twelve mixed-use apartment buildings on theUpper West Side. The firm sold the portfolio of 153 apartment homesand 23 commercial spaces to the Orbach Group, a New Jersey-basedreal estate investment firm. Aaron Jungreis, president and founderof Rosewood Realty Group, represented both the buyer and seller inthe deal.

The sale price represents a 31% internal rate of return for theproperties, which were originally purchased by the Teaneck,N.J.-based real estate concern in 2012. According to Treetop, thetransaction reflects the growing strength of the apartment marketbordering Harlem and the Upper West Side which has gainedpopularity in recent years from students, young professionals andmiddle-class working families looking for an alternative to NewYork City's high-priced rental neighborhoods.

“The market for multi-family buildings stretching from96^th street to 115^th street has beenstrengthening in recent years as a dramatic rise in rents has madeapartment assets an institutional class that investors are activelyseeking to own,” says Adam Mermelstein, a principal of TreetopDevelopment.