Liberty Towers at 33 Hudson St. in Jersey City
By Joshua Burd
Mack-Cali Realty Corp. has closed on the latest addition to its Jersey City residential portfolio, acquiring a two-tower, 648-unit apartment complex for $409 million.
The real estate investment trust, which is based in the city, announced in early August that it had agreed to acquire the Liberty Towers property at 33 Hudson St. It has now completed the acquisition of the twin 37-story buildings, which were built in 2003 and were among the first luxury apartment properties to usher in Jersey City’s waterfront residential boom.
A brokerage team including Jose Cruz, Kevin O’Hearn, Michael Oliver, Stephen Simonelli, Mark Mahasky and Andrew Scandalios — formerly of HFF but now of JLL — marketed Liberty Towers on behalf of JP Morgan Asset Management.
The deal comes five months after Mack-Cali acquired Soho Lofts, a 377-unit rental community in Jersey City’s emerging Soho West neighborhood, for $264 million. The REIT, through its Roseland Residential Trust subsidiary, has worked in recent years to expand its multifamily portfolio along the Hudson waterfront through both acquisition and construction.
Marshall Tycher, Roseland’s chairman, said during Mack-Cali’s second-quarter earnings call in August that the company had also acquired a development site at 107 Morgan St. in Jersey City. He said at the time that the REIT was finalizing approvals for a roughly 800-unit development.
In marketing Liberty Towers earlier this year, the brokerage team hailed the offering as a chance to buy a well-known property within Jersey City, but one that has additional upside.
“Liberty Towers’ irreplaceable location, top-tier amenity package and unique views grant the property with inherent pricing power, while the ability to upgrade units will increase rental revenue as ownership can mark rents to market,” the brokers wrote in their offering materials. “Liberty Towers is a rare opportunity to acquire a Jersey City trophy asset in an irreplaceable Hudson waterfront location with the ability to capture significant rental premiums through unit renovations.”
The property’s amenities were upgraded in 2015 but offered the potential to unlock additional value by renovating individual apartments, the brokers wrote. With views of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, the towers also have 23,569 square feet of occupied retail space and six floors of garage parking, the offering said.
Existing amenities include a pool and sundeck, fitness center, lounge and clubroom and a golf simulator.
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