$33M apartment complex sale invests big bucks in transit-oriented downtown

NJ.com
By Jessica Mazzola
on August 13, 2016 at 1:11 PM, updated August 13, 2016 at 5:05 PM
SOUTH ORANGE — The $32.77 million sale of The Gateway — a luxury mixed-use apartment complex on South Orange Avenue — has set a new real estate standard in Essex County, according to the commercial realtor who brokered the deal.

gateway exterior 1The sale of the complex, which is comprised of 57 luxury apartments and 9,000 square feet of retail space near the South Orange train station, set a new record, the realtor, the Kislak Company, said in a release about the sale.

The purchase cost of over $500,000 a unit bested the previous Essex County record for the highest sale price per unit of an apartment building by more than $100,000, the company said.
The previous owners — EEA Industries, LLC, Soundview Real Estate Partners, South Orange Commons Tenant, LLC, and South Orange Commons III Urban Renewal, LLC — sold the property to a private investor, the release said.

“My partners and I are very pleased with the results and are committed to remaining in South Orange and being a part of its continued renaissance over the next few years,” Edward Ayuso II, the founder and principal of EEA Industries, said in a statement.

The building, a former abandoned car dealership that reopened as the luxury complex in 2014, is part of an ongoing transit-oriented redevelopment of South Orange’s downtown. Realtors in the area have started marketing South Orange and its neighbor, Maplewood, as “Brooklyn West” to buyers looking for a hybrid urban-suburban lifestyle.

At the time of The Gateway sale, the building’s nine one-bedroom apartments and 48 two-bedroom apartments were fully rented, Kislak said in the release. Two of the three retail spaces on the ground floor were occupied, and the third recently rented, the company said.

“Growing up in South Orange, it is exciting to see how much it has changed and improved in recent years,” said Julie Gralla, a Kislak associate who represented the buyer in the sale.

“The Village has become like Hoboken…and is also attracting local and national investors and developers.”

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