Bellwood Gardens at 450-454 Walnut St. in Elizabeth – Courtesy: Gebroe-Hammer Associates
By Joshua Burd
An investor has acquired three apartment properties in Elizabeth as part of a $10.5 million portfolio sale arranged by Gebroe-Hammer Associates, the brokerage firm said Monday.
The 106-unit portfolio includes Bellwood Gardens at 450-454 Walnut St., a 40-unit building within the city’s downtown, Gebroe-Hammer said. Also included is the 38-unit Barbara Hall Apartments, a three-story property that within the Broad Street and East Grand Street district.
The third property, located in the city’s Elmora section, is the 28-unit 928 Pennington Ave.
The Gebroe-Hammer brokerage team of Managing Director David Oropeza and Senior Vice President Stephen Tragash exclusively represented the seller, Pennington Apts. Inc., and procured the buyer, 433 Park LLC.
“Elizabeth has become a focus for investors seeking value-add and property repositioning opportunities thanks to its strong, working-class tenancy, high foot traffic and vibrant neighborhoods,” said Tragash, the firm’s Elizabeth market specialist. “With a 65 (percent) renter percentage, Elizabeth stands out as one of the nation’s top cities where the housing stock is predominantly comprised of apartment buildings. As a result, their strong occupancies render them an extremely attractive investment.”
Bellwood Gardens, built in 1940, is a three-story building with an all-brick façade close to schools, shopping and the Elizabeth and North Elizabeth rail stations, both of which are less than a mile away, Gebroe-Hammer said. The Elmora property, 928 Pennington Ave., is one block from Warinanco Park and its popular shopping district.
All told, Gebroe-Hammer has brokered deals involving 231 units in the city recently for a total of nearly $21 million, according to a news release. Tragash spearheaded each of the sales on behalf of private individual and investment group clients.
“Multifamily investors are not only drawn to Elizabeth for its reputation as one of the nation’s top-ranked renter cities, it also is known for being among the highest in terms of train ridership,” Tragash said, adding that the city is served by both NJ Transit’s Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast lines.
“In terms of today’s ‘must-have’ investment requirements, Elizabeth checks all the boxes: a well-established, diverse tenant pool, commuter transit options and a historic urban waterfront locale where the existing multi-family housing stock is ripe for value-add repositioning.”