Two East Orange apartment properties sell for $11.75 million

EAST ORANGE, NJ — Gebroe-Hammer Associates’ Executive Managing Director David Oropeza and Senior Vice President Debbie Pomerantz recently arranged the $11.75 million sale of a City Center apartment-property package totaling 88 units in East Orange. The assets included 255 Prospect St. and 284 Prospect St., both of which are garden-style buildings in a tree-lined residential neighborhood.

The Gebroe-Hammer team exclusively represented the seller, F&C Realty Co. LLC, and procured the buyer, a private investor, in the transaction. Collectively, the properties feature a mix of studio to three-bedroom layouts, a portion of which have recently been renovated. According to Oropeza, the Prospect Street properties offer new ownership a historically stabilized tenancy and an opportunity to achieve repositioning maturation. 

“East Orange’s multifamily investment and redevelopment momentum has accelerated in the past 18 to 24 months,” Oropeza said. “Characterized by a multifamily-dense early- to mid-20th-century vintage of properties, the city has approximately 30 percent of its dwellings classified as small apartment buildings and 50 percent as mid to larger apartment complexes. As such, the existing housing stock is ripe for repositioning while under-utilized parcels are primed redevelopment.” 

Oropeza, who has spent his entire 35-year professional investment brokerage career with Gebroe-Hammer Associates and focusing on east Essex County, notes this wave of multifamily investment in East Orange mirrors that of its urban neighbor Newark and is now extending into Orange and Irvington as well.

“In just the past decade, East Orange has evolved from its urban industrial roots to become a popular residential, business and tourist destination favored by professionals who work throughout North and Central Jersey as well as New York City,” Oropeza said. “The city also experienced a surge in apartment-rental demand during the COVID-19 pandemic with the migration of former big-city dwellers who have chosen to remain in place in what has become a ‘new norm’ work-from-home era.”

According to Oropeza, East Orange’s renewal is being driven by young professionals and established millennials seeking affordable apartment-home living near employment centers, mass transit access points, educational centers and green space.