Livingston, N.J. – Gebroe-Hammer Associates has been appointed as the exclusive listing agent to market the in-receivership Garden State Portfolio, a 406-unit, 29-building collection of apartment properties spanning the entire state of New Jersey. Executive Managing Director Joseph Brecher is spearheading the assignment, which was awarded by Colliers International as receiver.

Comprised of garden-style and low-rise buildings throughout well-established and emerging municipalities statewide, the underperforming properties are being marketed in an open-bid process collectively, as smaller packages and individually. The assets are located across the in-demand submarkets of Bergen, Passaic, Hudson, Union, Middlesex, Camden, Atlantic and Salem counties, all of which are along the coveted New York City-to-Philadelphia corridor.

“The Garden State Portfolio presents intrinsic value-add and repositioning components, as well as the benefit of economies of scale associated with a property package of this categoric size and geographic scope,” said Brecher. “Because of its potential to realize tremendous untapped upside, this offering targets investors concentrated on multifamily assets with at-market renovation and stabilization potential and an ability to capture higher rent-premium benchmarks.”

As part of two densely populated Northeast MSAs – New York City and Philadelphia – New Jersey’s multifamily housing stock has proven its long-term resiliency in every type of economic cycle. This is due to the state’s dynamic local, regional and metro-level lifestyle offerings; exceptional transit and major-highway connectivity; and diverse economy, which includes blue-chip employers, Fortune-500 companies and centers of academia.

“In general, New Jersey is classified as a suburb of New York City and Philadelphia, yet it has its own urban centers, semi-urban municipalities and bedroom-community towns – all of which make up the Garden State Portfolio,” said Brecher.

In total, the portfolio properties are located across 11 boroughs, villages, towns and cities. These include Ridgefield Park (15 units), Garfield (34 units), Clifton (14 units), Union City and Guttenberg (67 units), Jersey City (12 units), Elizabeth (66 units), Perth Amboy (17 units), Atlantic City (51 units), Brooklawn (54 units) and Pennsville (76 units).

For 45 years, Gebroe-Hammer’s brokerage activities have concentrated on all multifamily types to serve the investment needs of a long-term client base of institutional investors, private equity funds, REITs, family offices and private individuals. While initially focused on New Jersey, the Livingston, N.J.-based firm has evolved to also dominate the Eastern Pennsylvania and New York State submarkets as well as represent client interests nationally. Widely recognized for its consistent sales performance, the firm is a 16-time CoStar Power Broker and is credited with arranging the largest portfolio sale in 2019 for the MidAtlantic Region and in New Jersey.