Newark apartment complex is sold for $50M

A Newark garden apartment complex has sold for $50 million, according to real estate services firm Gebroe-Hammer Associates.

Gebroe-Hammer said in a news release that longtime owner Kamson Corp. sold the 452 multifamily units, known as Forest Hill Terrace Apartments, to an undisclosed private family-office entity with numerous holdings in the city.

David Jarvis, a Gebroe-Hammer executive vice president and the firm’s Newark market specialist, exclusively represented the seller and procured the buyer.

“High-density apartment properties like Forest Hill Terrace are at the core of Newark’s transformation,” Jarvis said in a prepared statement. “These types of properties present a rare investment acquisition opportunity, and are therefore considered premium product among experienced multifamily investors who are familiar with the city’s past, its present and its future potential.”

Jarvis said Newark’s residential population is almost 80 percent renters, which should benefit the new owners of the property at 325 Grafton Ave. in the North Ward.

“This property mirrors Newark’s rebirth and promise,” Jarvis said. “Forest Hill Terrace is an iconic, 1940s-era property with boundless value-add potential, which is what interested the buyer, who is a longtime client of Gebroe-Hammer.”

Forest Hill Terrace includes 297 one-bedroom and 60 two-bedroom units, plus 94 studios, plus a four-bedroom home on the property.

Allen Popowitz of Brach Eichler LLC in Roseland provided legal counsel to the seller.