126-134 Corbin Ave. in Jersey City — Courtesy: Gebroe-Hammer Associates
By Joshua Burd
An investor has sold more than 2,100 apartments in Hudson County for nearly $328 million, in a series of transactions brokered by Gebroe-Hammer Associates.
The brokerage firm said this week that it represented a single client in the sale of the 118 buildings in Jersey City, West New York, North Bergen, Guttenberg and Union City. The properties, which total 2,137 units, were sold as part of six different transactions.
Gebroe-Hammer Associates’ Senior Vice President Nicholas Nicolaou represented the seller.
“The Gateway Portfolio in its entirety and as separate packages presented an extremely rare multifamily investment opportunity,” Nicolaou said, noting that the deal marked the highest concentration of stabilized assets in Hudson County ever to come to market. He added that asking rents for the submarket are expected to rise around 6 percent in the coming years.
The transactions included:
- $190.65 million for 67 buildings comprising 1,272 units in West New York, Jersey City, North Bergen and Guttenberg
- $97.021 million for 35 buildings with 588 units throughout Jersey City’s Journal Square and Jersey City Heights neighborhoods.
In both transactions, Nicolaou represented the seller, while Gebroe-Hammer Executive Managing Director Joseph Brecher procured the buyer, Optimum Holdings LLC.
“Jersey City’s urban infill neighborhoods are reaping the benefits, so to speak, of westward expansion that is extending redevelopment further away from the Gold Coast waterfront,” Nicolaou said. “In turn, this is drawing a new post-undergrad millennial tenant pool with two-to-three-year-old professional careers who crave the affordability, transit accessibility and lifestyle of the ‘Brooklyn of New Jersey.’ ”
The portfolio also included another sale involving Jersey City that translated to $190,000 per unit, along with two separate Union City transactions totaling 10 buildings and 164 units and a five-building, 105-unit package in West New York that sold for $15.15 million.
Nicolaou said the disposition of the entire portfolio spanned 18 months, adding that each property “attracted investors because of their potential to yield significant market-rate rent appreciation spurred by neighborhood gentrification as well as implementation of modest-to-extensive value-add capital improvements.”
“The out-of-state seller recognized the time was right to shed these assets,” Nicolaou said. “Hudson County’s ‘boom’ years are far from being fully realized and multifamily investors — from private individuals to institutional entities — are seeking to either gain entry or expand their holdings through the purchase of existing product or development-deal acquisitions.”
