Berkeley’s new management has high hopes for the future

IRVINGTON, NJ — The Berkeley Terrace Apartments complex on Grove Street has a new owner who held a special meeting Thursday, July 27, with his tenants inside Council Chambers in the Municipal Building to inform them about the upgrades he intends to implement.

On Wednesday, Aug. 2, Josh Levy of Candlebrook Properties, the real estate and property management company that recently purchased the affordable housing apartment complex, served up a cookout featuring free food, music, drinks and ice cream for the residents, and told them about the scheduled renovations.

“We were having our first tenants meeting for the tenants of Berkeley Terrace and told them about the new renovation that we’re going to be doing at the property and the relocation process during that renovation so that they could hear about what their new homes are going to look like and what the new management team is so that they can become more comfortable with the people that they’re going to be seeing at the property,” said Levy. He added that the renovations would “take about 12 months to complete.”

South Ward Councilwoman Sandy Jones happened to be in the Municipal Building dealing with other constituent matters on Thursday, July 27, when she came across Levy’s tenant meeting and expressed her interest in the project.

“That development is going to be beautiful, once they fix it,” Jones said.

Mayor Tony Vauss said revitalizing the economically distressed East Ward has been one of his administration’s priorities and it’s good to see outside investors taking an interest in the area.

“I’ve met with Levy briefly and spoke with him and he seems OK and we’re happy they decided to invest in Irvington,” said Vauss on Thursday, July 27. “They’re going to be renovating the Berkeley Terrace Apartments and that’s a good thing. We need all the investment, development and development in the East Ward that we can get.”

East Ward Councilman Paul Inman agreed with Vauss, stating, “Initially, they were supposed to start before they had that meeting at Town Hall, but then they gave me another date after that meeting.” But now everything seems to be on track, according to Levy’s timeframe for the project.

“I talked to the new owners prior to that July 27 meeting,” said Inman on Tuesday, Sept. 19. “The only thing I’m a little disappointed in is the fact that they said they were going to do a little playground for the kids over there, but I understand now that’s been scaled back. Other than that, my only concern is that the tenants are able to come back, after all the improvements and renovations are made. But it’s my understanding that most of the rent is paid through Section 8, so the tenants should be OK with that.”

According to Levy, the Berkeley Terrace Apartments have an occupancy rate of greater than 90 percent, precisely because the tenants have Section 8 housing benefits and reduced rents.

“We only have one vacancy. I’ve spent my entire career working on what we call ‘affordable housing’ and working on renovations for affordable housing to preserve them and to make them better for the tenants that are there” said Levy. “We saw that this was a property that had a lot physical needs and a lot of problems with management and we thought it was a great opportunity to do something where we could help benefit the tenants and, thankfully, we encountered a terrific township, amazing leadership here, and was able to help us get this deal done, and so we’re really excited to be here and be able to do this.”

All in all, levy said Candlebrook Properties is pleased with its acquisition of Berkeley Terrace Apartments and that soon its tenants will be happy they stayed on too.

“We think the future is bright for Irvington,” said Levy. “You guys have an incredible leadership team. Everybody really here is devoted to change and gentrification and I think this is an amazing town that is absolutely on the upswing.”

  Berkeley Terrace apartments, Paul Inman, Sandy Jones