A New Jersey owner has unloaded a portfolio of over 2,000 apartments across the Garden State for $327.9 million.
Gebroe-Hammer Associates brokered the off market sale in marathon 18-month deal led by senior vice president Nicholas Nicolaou.
Know as the Gateway Portfolio, the 118-building, 2,137-unit multifamily asset was sold on behalf of a private unnamed investor, according to Gebroe Hammer.
The package was broken into six separate packages located throughout Jersey City, West New York, North Bergen, Guttenberg and Union City.
“The Gateway Portfolio in its entirety and as separate packages presented an extremely rare multi-family investment opportunity,” said Nicolaou.
“It marked the highest concentration of for-sale stabilized assets in Hudson County ever to come to market at a time when asking rents for this apartment submarket are expected to advance upward of six percent over the next couple of years.”
Of the six packages, the largest involved a total of 67 buildings that sold for $190 million located in West New York (47 buildings, 993 units), Jersey City (12 buildings, 175 units), North Bergen (6 buildings, 76 units) and Guttenberg (2 buildings, 28 units).
The second largest package averaged a $165,000 per-unit price, selling for $97 million. In total, that package involved 35 buildings and 588 units throughout Jersey City’s Journal Square and Jersey City Heights neighborhoods.
In both transactions, Nicolaou represented the seller and 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,” said Nicolaou.
“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.’”
Nicolaou said the deal took 18 months total.
“The out-of-state seller recognized the time was right to shed these assets,” said Nicolaou. “Hudson County’s ‘boom’ years are far from being fully realized and multi-family 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.”
