East Falls apartment complex sells for $47.3M

Tree Top Development, a Newark, N.J., real estate company, bought Charter Court at East Falls, an large apartment complex in Philadelphia, for $47.3 million.

The property, once known as School Lane House, is at 5450 Wissahickon Ave. It has two, 11-story towers with 496 apartments and six commercial spaces. It was about 88 percent occupied at the time of sale.

Tree Top Development acquired the property from Resource Real Estate, a division of Resource America Inc.

About 18 months ago, Resource, backed by Contrarian Capital Management of Connecticut, paid $30 million to buy the note on the property from New York Community Bank. Resource and Contrarian focus on buying distressed assets.

Under that ownership, about $5 million in cosmetic upgrades were made to the property. However, the new owner plans to invest heavily in making improvements to the property, including spending upwards of $15,000 per unit on renovations, said Mark Thomson, who along with Zachary Pierce of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler arranged the sale.

This is the first Philadelphia acquisition for Tree Top but the company plans to make additional buys in the city, Thomson said.

“They have been very aggressive,” he said.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal