918 East Clements Bridge Road in Runnemede — Courtesy: Gebroe-Hammer Associates
By Joshua Burd
An owner of more than 40 years has sold a two-state multifamily portfolio spanning more than 500 apartments, including a 268-unit garden property in Camden County, in a nearly $34 million deal arranged by Gebroe-Hammer Associates.
In a news release, the firm identified the properties as Presidential Court Apartments in Runnemede and Orchard Drive Apartments in Whitehall, Pennsylvania. A private investor listed as TNJ Properties LLC acquired the portfolio, which totals 532 units and presents “significant value-add and repositioning potential,” Gebroe-Hammer said.
The brokerage team of Executive Vice President David Jarvis and Vice President Adam Zweibel exclusively represented the seller and procured the buyer.
“Both properties, which were built in the 1960s and were owned by the seller for 40 (plus) years, appealed to the buyer because they are primed for major capital improvements that will quickly yield high-end competitive market-rate rents,” Zweibel said in a prepared statement. “The Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia/South Jersey submarkets are among the region’s top MSAs where millennial-aged/executive-level tenant demand continues to trend upward and is expected to do so for quite some time.”
The Presidential Court complex features a mix of one- and two-bedroom layouts throughout the complex, the news release said. Located at 918 East Clements Bridge Road in Runnemede, the property is 11 miles from Philadelphia and has its own stop along an NJ Transit bus route.
Zweibel said the Camden West submarket, which includes Runnemede, “is white hot right now.” He cited data from the research firm REIS, which found in April that the submarket led the entire Philadelphia apartment market’s 28 geographic concentrations in transaction volume over the prior 12 months.
The $18.25 million Orchard Drive Apartments sale involved 264 one- and two-bedroom units at 1239 Washington St. in Whitehall, Pennsylvania. The community is close to leading employers such as Lehigh Valley and St. Luke’s University health networks, Amazon.com, Air Products and Chemicals and the American headquarters for Olympus Corp.
“Considered a suburb of Allentown, Whitehall is situated in the heart of the Lehigh Valley, the fastest growing and third-most populous region in Pennsylvania behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh,” Zweibel said. “Whitehall Township also has some of the most expensive real estate in the state and an architectural landscape where approximately one-third of the buildings are small to large apartment complexes.”
Both properties are located near mass transit links, an extensive highway network, neighborhood schools and shopping, Gebroe-Hammer said. Each community has amenities such as off-street parking, laundry facilities and professionally landscaped courtyards and playgrounds.
