By Joshua Burd
Gebroe-Hammer Associates has expanded its management team with the promotion of a key multifamily broker in the southern New Jersey and greater Philadelphia market.
Joseph Gehler, who started six years ago as a broker trainee, is now a vice president with the Livingston-based firm. The company described him as an integral member of its team in suburban Philadelphia, driving his rise through the ranks during the historic run-up in the multifamily industry that lasted for several years.
“An uptick ‘easy-money’ cycle can skew a brand new salesperson’s perception of what a real estate broker will actually experience in the long term, not having yet lived through the reality of economic cycles,” said Ken Uranowitz, president of Gebroe-Hammer.
“However, once the pandemic hit and the industry was basically in suspended animation, Joe kept a laser focus on the big picture, patiently followed advice and guidance from his mentors and, as a result, his star began to rise very quickly. He has natural instincts for the business and a very engaging personality, which gets him into quite a few doors.”
Gehler, an Ocean County resident, focuses on suburban Philadelphia’s northern counties of Delaware, Montgomery and Bucks, while also representing client interests in Philadelphia proper, across South Jersey and throughout central and northern New Jersey. For the year, the Philadelphia regional team recorded more than $732 million in sales spanning 25 deals and 3,929 units, with Gehler spearheading 17 of those transactions with a combined 1,170 units and an aggregate value of some $214 million.
Uranowitz also noted that, in the past few years, especially during the interest rate hikes starting in mid-2022, Gehler “kept the glue together on several deals where Gebroe-Hammer’s competitors would have waved — and did wave — the white flag due to buyer, seller and lender hesitations and uncertainty.”
“At the ripe ‘old age’ of 32, he has deservedly earned the respect of investors, owners, attorneys and other industry-related professionals,” Uranowitz said. “We congratulate Joe on this much-deserved promotion.”
In 2022 alone, Gehler was a key contributor toward the firm’s overall annual multifamily-focused sales of more than $1.47 billion, according to a news release. Some of his notable transactions included the trade of a roughly 240-unit garden apartment community in Bucks County, the sale of 122 units across two properties in East Mount Airy and the disposition of more than 125 units in Cumberland County.
Gehler also had prominent sales in Monmouth County and Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
“From day one as a novice, I was able to both listen to and learn from the best in the business, participate in the sales lifecycle and experience Gebroe-Hammer’s core values of integrity, persistence and patience,” said Gehler, who earned the firm’s Salesperson of the Year honor in 2019 after just three years in the business.
“All of my accomplishments — from the smallest wins to the multimillion-dollar transactions – are directly tied to Gebroe-Hammer’s training structure, which does not include sitting behind a desk gathering market information for other brokers in the field,” he added. “I have entrenched myself in the submarkets in which I specialize and cultivated what have proven to be long-term client relationships that will continue to grow and expand throughout what I expect to be a long, exciting and storied career.”
