Page 26 - RE-NJ

24 SEPTEMBER 2024
The Nell, a 252-unit complex at 100 South Washington Ave. in Dunellen, is Prism Capital Partners’ newest multifamily property.
A KEY STEP
For Prism, bringing residential property management in-house is a goal years in the making
The arrival of The Nell in downtown Dunellen last year was just the latest piece of Prism Capital Partners’ growing apartment portfolio in New Jersey. But the 252-unit property marked
a key milestone for the developer, allowing it to reach its long-held goal of taking its residential property management in-house.
According to the firm, the luxury rental community at 100 South Washington Ave. gave it the scale it needed to justify both expanding its team and investing in new technology to support its overall housing platform. The move is already bearing fruit, providing real-time data that can boost performance, while reducing turnover and optimizing rental rates to ensure
that the firm is enhancing the value of each property.
“I think the biggest thing we’ve learned is that having
control of our own product, having control of our pricing, having control of our turns has helped
us maintain
our higher occupancies,” said Jon Hoff, a veteran
industry executive and president of Prism Property Services, citing its impact on a portfolio that also includes properties in West Orange and Woodbridge.
Reaching the milestone is years in
the making. Launched in 2002 by principals Gene Diaz and Ed Cohen, Prism’s roots are in suburban office buildings in Parsippany and other markets where it could add value through renovations and lease-up. It began to self-
manage those
properties within
just a few years,
hiring Hoff in
2007. But it was
also around that
time that the firm
was expanding
to multifamily
development, seeking to diversify its business and protect against volatility in any single asset class.
That foray began with Parkway Lofts,
an adaptive reuse of the historic former General Electric Co. building in Bloomfield, which opened in fall 2013 with 361 luxury apartments. It quickly became clear that residential property management was “a whole different thought process” from the commercial sector, Hoff said, pointing to the shorter leasing cycles at apartment buildings and the exponentially larger volume of tenants.
“The theory behind it is pretty much the same,” he said. “What really is much more complex is the amount of churn and turn that you have, the leasing and the numbers and making sure that you’re on top of that on a daily basis, because what you end up seeing is that you erode your (net operating income) and you kill your
Jon Hoff
By Joshua Burd
Eugene Diaz
Courtesy: Prism