Gebroe-Hammer Associates said Feb. 2 it has set the bar high for 2021 with the $72M trade of a 641-unit portfolio spanning Newark and Irvington, both in East Essex County.  Executive Managing Director David Oropeza and Executive Vice President David Jarvis exclusively represented the seller, OneWall Partners, and procured the buyer, an unnamed private investment group.

Gebroe-Hammer’s Adam Zweibel, senior vice president, also served as a member of the brokerage team and Brad Domenico, a partner at Progress Capital, arranged the financing.

The portfolio’s well-maintained, classic mid-20th Century buildings feature a mix of studio and one-, two- and three-bedroom units with a wide square-footage range. Each has tremendous appeal among the region’s workforce-housing tenant base, has undergone far-reaching capital improvements during the past four years and is primed for additional value-add enhancements under new ownership.

“Considered Essex County’s leading urban-core corridor, the Newark-Irvington tract is one of the most dynamic, on-the-rise multifamily investment submarkets in the New York Metro,” said Oropeza, an acknowledged brokerage leader with 34 years’ experience at Gebroe-Hammer focusing on urban multifamily investments. “The entire area is undergoing a dramatic transformation that is having positive effects on historically stabilized multifamily product of this portfolio’s caliber.”

The five-property collection of Newark buildings is centrally situated within the city’s historic Weequahic section, spanning a 1.8-mile stretch.

The East Essex submarket is defined by a cluster of urban municipalities encompassing the City of Newark as well as East Orange, Orange and Irvington.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Feb. 3, 2021, at 11:10 a.m to remove five buildings’ property addresses as per the request of the broker.