Almost seven years after being acquired in foreclosure, the 147 rental condos at Sky View at Carriage City Plaza are back on the market.
The Kislak Company, a Woodbridge-based commercial real estate firm, distributed an email last week announcing a “package of 147 condominiums across from the train station for sale.” Jeff Squires, senior vice president, did not return an email message seeking comment.
The 222-unit, 17-story Carriage City Plaza opened in summer 2008 just before the housing market’s collapse, and some 62 condo units sold individually before the remainder of the building went into a $58-million foreclosure in 2011, along with the commercial and hotel space. The ground-floor commercial space and hotel, which occupies the first four floors, were acquired last year.
The 147 units currently are owned by 80 E. Milton Ave., LLC, which acquired the unsold units and hotel and retail space in foreclosure in 2010. 80 E. Milton Ave., LLC, is a subsidiary of a pension fund (LongView ULTRA Construction Loan Investment Fund), of which Amalgamated Bank is a trustee and was the original lender for the $65-million project.
It’s unclear what the asking price is but at 147 units, if it was a stand-alone building it would be one of the largest existing downtown developments. The only ones larger than 147 units are those that have been approved but not yet under construction: the 208-unit Main & Monroe to be built in Lot B off Main Street and 209 units at the former Center Circle site on Main Street and City Hall Plaza.
Park Square is slightly larger at 159 units but they are spread across two buildings, with 96 units along Main Street and 63 units along Irving Street. Mack-Cali Realty bought the 159-unit complex in 2013 for $46.5 million. By comparison, a 206-unit, 11-story building in East Orange recently sold for $22 million.
80 E. Milton Ave., LLC sold the retail and hotel space at Carriage City Plaza last year to Bridgeton Holdings Group for $5 million, which opened as the Watt Hotel in late 2017. The hotel space had been vacant for four years ever since Hotel Indigo left in 2013.