105 Grove St. in Elizabeth — Courtesy: SAGE Investment Real Estate Advisors
By Joshua Burd
A private investor has acquired a 31-unit apartment building in Elizabeth for $4.2 million, in a newly announced deal by SAGE Investment Real Estate Advisors.
Located in the city’s Elmora section, the property at 105 Grove St. consists of all one-bedroom floorplans and was fully occupied at the time of the sale, the brokerage team said. SAGE’s Steve Tragash represented the undisclosed seller and procured the buyer, noting that the 97-year-old property has value-add potential in a location where West End and West Jersey avenues converge and where residents are a 15-minute walk from NJ Transit’s Elizabeth Station.
“The sale of this Elizabeth property in the low 5 percent cap range surprisingly follows the trend of aggressive pricing for value-add offerings,” said Tragash, a SAGE partner and co-founder. “The flipside of this is that fully stabilized properties — with less upside — are responding more sensitively to interest rates with cap rates corresponding closer to mortgage rates. For properties that fall into this category, we are working closely with these clients to contemplate whether it makes sense to sell now or wait.
“While this approach may be somewhat atypical to the traditional broker/owner relationship, our approach is to understand our clients’ businesses holistically and capitalize on market timing.”
The deal is among more than $40 million in multifamily sale activity that SAGE has brokered recently, following its launch early this year. The trades have involved more than 114 Class A and value-add units across Morris, Bergen and Union counties, the Morristown-based firm said, adding that its client base includes institutional and private-equity entities as well as privately owned companies, family offices and private individuals, with the latter group still accounting for a significant percentage of New Jersey’s multifamily owners.
SAGE said there are more transactions to come as it lists properties and identifies potential investment targets for clients.
“With almost 12,500 units currently under construction across North Jersey alone, and the market’s ability to absorb new product along the state’s transit-centric suburban corridors, investment appetite has not waned for new construction,” said Greg Pine, SAGE partner and co-founder.
