Capri Capital Sells 351-Unit M-F Community in Fort Lee, NJ

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

The Crest at Fort Lee, a 351-unit apartment community in Fort Lee, N.J., has been sold by Capri Capital Partners L.L.C., of Chicago, for $120 million to Pantzer Properties, of New York, it was announced Tuesday by HFF, which had marketed the property on behalf of Capri.

The gated property, built in 1999, consists of seven buildings sited on 13 acres at 900 Crest Lane in eastern Bergen County. The community’s 96 percent leased and has a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 1,058 square feet. The property’s amenities include garage parking, tenant storage, a clubhouse with heated outdoor pool, fitness center, indoor basketball court, community room, business center, playground and grilling area.

The HFF investment sales team representing the seller was led by senior managing director Jose Cruz, managing director Kevin O’Hearn and associate director Steve Simonelli and was supported by senior managing director Andrew Scandalios.

“The buyer has an opportunity to add value to the property in a market that is seeing new development and higher rents,” Cruz said in a release.

Hyland Levin L.L.P. served as legal counsel for the buyer, and Krawnow Saunders, Kaplan & Beninati L.L.P. represented the seller.

Some of the highest apartment rents in northern New Jersey are found in Bergen County, where they average $2,021 per month, up 3.2 percent year over year, according to a fourth-quarter report from Marcus & Millichap, and the county is also hot in terms of construction. About 11,000 residential units are under way in northern New Jersey, and the majority of these are in Bergen County.

One of the largest multi-family projects in the works is The Modern, a 900-unit complex in Fort Lee at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. Its twin 47-story glass towers were scheduled to open this quarter.

Average apartment vacancy in Bergen County currently is 2.9 percent, a drop of 110 basis points, year over year.

And though apartment deal flow eased 12 percent in the four-quarter period ending in September, according to M&M, “Bergen County recorded one of the few rises in transaction velocity, climbing 40 percent, based on a handful of deals.”