150 South Harrison St. in East Orange — Courtesy: OneWall Communities
By Joshua Burd
An apartment owner has sold a five-building, 301-unit portfolio in East Orange for $53 million, under a transaction arranged by CBRE.
The deal by OneWall Communities, which operates transit-oriented and suburban lifestyle workforce housing, comes less than five years after it began to acquire and launch a series of renovations to reposition the properties. An undisclosed buyer purchased the buildings, including 150 South Harrison St.
“OneWall is committed to enhancing the communities we serve,” said Nate Kline, a OneWall principal and its chief investment officer. “We seek to continually upgrade the properties we manage, improving infrastructure, aesthetics and operations to achieve a superior living environment for our residents.”
CBRE’s Jeffrey Dunne, Jeremy Neuer, Steve Bardsley, David Gavin, Richard Gatto, Fahri Ozturk, Travis Langer and Zachary McHale, along with Nat Gambuzza and Timothy Blashford, represented the Stamford, Connecticut-based seller in the transaction. OneWall said it compiled the portfolio between 2017 and 2018, doing so as part of a growing footprint of workforce housing near East Orange’s transit hubs.
The company is now selling the properties with improved common areas, upgraded physical plants and renovated units.
“We are very pleased to have represented OneWall Communities in the sale of this portfolio,” said Dunne, a vice chairman with CBRE. “The value-add potential of the assets and improving market dynamics drew significant interest from the investor community. The market demand for lifestyle-workforce housing product in transit-oriented markets is stronger than ever and is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future.”
OneWall, previously known as One Wall Partners, also said that it recently acquired two assets in Middle River, Maryland — Oak Grove Apartments & Townhomes, a 17-acre property with 259 apartments and 88 townhomes, as well as Hopkins Point, a 39-acre, 524-unit rental property — in partnership with Enterprise Community Partners.
“We identified the long-term growth trends for workforce housing in East Orange and the greater Newark area when we launched OneWall in 2010,” Kline said. “We are focused on a host of new housing opportunities throughout the East Coast that will provide significant investment returns as the economy continues to recover and regional infrastructure improvement projects advance.”
