The James at 87 Morris Ave. in Park Ridge — Photo by Alex Staniloff of Gotham Interiors
By Joshua Burd
A development team has completed its sale of a new 240-unit luxury apartment building in Park Ridge, commanding $130 million for the property in a deal with Veris Residential Inc.
Those closing comes two months after Veris, the Jersey City-based real estate investment trust, announced that it had agreed to buy the property known as The James at 87 Morris Ave. Built by Claremont Development and an institutional partner, the complex is now the latest addition to Veris’ portfolio of upscale rental properties, thanks in part to its proximity to NJ Transit rail service and a downtown location in Bergen County.
Thomas Walsh, Joseph Garibaldi, Katelyn Borovsky and Nick Vanderslice of Walker & Dunlop represented both sides in the sale.
“Since completion, The James outperformed all suburban underwriting metrics due to its overall superior quality and dearth of comparable competing inventory in the northern Bergen County submarket,” Walsh said. “Veris was not only attracted to the asset’s performance throughout lease-up, but they were attracted to the opportunity to acquire 245 units of the highest caliber institutional asset in an extremely high barriers to entry market with very little competition on the immediate horizon.”
In a separate news release, Cushman & Wakefield said its team of Brian Whitmer, Niko Nicolaou and Ryan Dowd represented Claremont.
Designed by Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners, The James has amenities such as a coffee bar, a clubroom with billiards and shuffleboard, a tasting room with a catering kitchen and co-working spaces with private offices. Additional features include a high-end fitness center and outdoor offerings such as a pool, grilling and dining areas and a turf lawn, among others.
It also includes more than 17,600 square feet of retail space that joins the downtown’s mix of shops, restaurants and local businesses, its developer said last year. Renters, meantime, are a block from NJ Transit commuter rail service on the Pascack Valley line and minutes from the Garden State Parkway and Palisades Parkway.
The deal is among Veris Residential’s largest acquisitions since the former Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and Roseland Residential Trust rebranded last December, with an emphasis on environmentally and socially conscious buildings. Mahboad Nia, its CEO, said the REIT was buying The James at a 4 percent capitalization rate using a portion of the proceeds from sales of land parcels in Jersey City, Weehawken and West Windsor, which totaled $129.5 million, as part of a Section 1031 like-kind exchange.
“The James is a great fit with our existing portfolio given its 2021 vintage — which is consistent with the comparatively low six-year average age of our portfolio relative to peers — its extensive amenity offering and its sustainability credentials,” Nia said, during the company’s first-quarter earnings report.
