255 and 284 Prospect St. in East Orange — Courtesy: Gebroe-Hammer Associates
By Joshua Burd
A private investor has purchased a two-building, 88-unit apartment portfolio in East Orange for nearly $12 million, according to a brokerage team with Gebroe-Hammer Associates.
The garden-style properties, located at 255 and 284 Prospect St., include a mix of layouts ranging from studios to three-bedroom homes. The brokers noted that a portion of the units are recently renovated, providing an opportunity for the portfolio’s new owner to complete the repositioning in a set of buildings with a historically stabilized tenancy.
“East Orange’s multifamily investment and redevelopment momentum has accelerated in the past 18 (to) 24 months,” said David Oropeza, an executive managing director with Gebroe-Hammer. “Characterized by a multifamily-dense early-to-mid-20th century vintage of properties, the city has approximately 30 percent of its dwellings classified as small apartment buildings and 50 percent as mid-to-larger apartment complexes. As such, the existing housing stock is ripe for repositioning while underutilized parcels are primed (for) redevelopment.”
Oropeza and Senior Vice President Debbie Pomerantz represented the seller, F&C Realty Co. LLC, in the $11.75 million deal. The transaction is the latest in a flurry of multifamily investment sales in East Orange and eastern Essex County overall, which benefit from a vast network of highways and mass transit hubs, along with local anchor institutions.
“In just the past decade, East Orange has evolved from its urban industrial roots to become a popular residential, business and tourist destination favored by professionals who work throughout North and Central Jersey as well as New York City,” said Oropeza, the firm’s specialist in the region. “The city also experienced a surge in apartment-rental demand during the COVID-19 pandemic with the migration of former big-city dwellers who have chosen to remain in place in what has become a ‘new norm’ work-from-home era.”
The veteran broker cited the impact of young professionals and established millennials seeking affordable rentals near employment centers, mass transit, educational centers and historic green space. He also pointed to the scores of workers at each of the anchor institutions throughout eastern Essex County, including the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers-Newark and Seton Hall University.