17 Webster Place in East Orange — Courtesy: Gebroe-Hammer Associates
By Joshua Burd
A private investor has acquired a 113-unit apartment portfolio in East Orange for nearly $15 million, under a newly announced transaction by Gebroe-Hammer Associates.
The brokerage firm represented the seller, a joint venture of Nova EO Portfolio I LLC and The Capital Foresight LP, in a deal that spans three properties in the city’s Brick Church section:
- 75 North Walnut St., a 44-unit property valued at $5.25 million
- 151 North Walnut St., 32-unit property valued at $3.95 million
- 17 Webster Place, a 37-unit property valued at $5.75 million
Gebroe-Hammer Executive Managing Director David Oropeza brokered the $14.95 million sale.
“East Orange is one of the New Jersey’s highest-population, high-building-density pockets where pre-1960s-era multifamily product dominates the housing-stock landscape,” Oropeza said.
“The city’s architectural sightline and tenant-base cohort have undergone a complete transformation, especially during the past 10 years,” he added. “This correlates to the redevelopment initiatives surrounding Brick Church station, which have spread into immediate-vicinity areas. Far-reaching redevelopment in East Orange and the entire east Essex region is following the same successful revitalization roadmap as the municipalities along the Hudson waterfront.”
Gebroe-Hammer noted that, since the start of the year, Oropeza has spearheaded more than $111.54 million in multifamily investment sales in eastern Essex County alone. East Orange, for its part, benefits from NJ Transit rail service at both the Brick Church and East Orange stations, along with direct access to Interstate 280 and other highways.
“These three properties straddle I-280, which runs east to west, and Brick Church with the Garden State Parkway’s north-south connectivity about one mile away,” Oropeza said, adding that city’s renewal is being embraced by young professionals, academics and established millennials.
“This cohort continues to seek affordable apartment-home living near employment centers, mass transit access points, educational centers and historic green space,” he said. “For this reason, East Orange has earned some of the highest walk scores in the nation — a huge attraction for investors — because of its high concentration of shopping, dining and lifestyle services that have either existed or cropped up in the face of revitalization.”
