Gebroe-Hammer Orchestrates $51M Apt. Deal

By Antoinette Martin

 

 

Philadelphia City
Apartments

PHILADELPHIA, PA - In the largest market-rate multifamily transaction of 2012 here, Gebroe-Hammer has arranged the sale of the Presidential City Apartments for $51 million, GlobeSt.com has exclusively learned. The company that bought the apartment building – which is the city’s biggest apartment complex - will renovate and reposition the 1030-unit structure, while the seller retains the ground lease.
“It is very rare to have a deal structure like this for a property in Philadelphia,” Joseph Brecher, managing director for Livingston, N.J.-based Gebroe-Hammer tells GlobeSt.com. “We were able to perform out-of-the-box for this seller and buyer,” says Brecher.
Along with Eli Rosen, a senior vice-president, Brecher represented the unidentified seller - a large New York City-based private investment company - and identified the buyer, Post Brothers Apartments of Philadelphia.
The property is situated just off the Schuylkill Expressway, a 3900 City Avenue. It had been marketed by several brokerage firms over the past few years, Brecher says, without a deal having gelled.
Two months ago, Gebroe-Hammer handled the $16.75 million sale of 228-unit Chestnut Hill Tower in Philadelphia for the same company that owned Presidential City. That transaction required creative structuring, Brecher notes, and resulted in G-H being solicited to conjure up an “out-of-the-box” arrangement for the more sizable multi-family deal.
Post Brothers is a builder/owner/manager of numerous buildings in Philadelphia. “They plan a full-scale renovation of the Presidential City property that will realize the true value of the location,” Brecher says. The current structure which offers studios, 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, dates from the 1950s, he added.

Categories: Northeast, Multifamily, Residential, Philadelphia