Olive Tree Management, of New Jersey, acquired the Hillside Pointe Apartments in Claymont earlier this year for $38 million. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
CLAYMONT – A New Jersey real estate investment firm recently acquired a Claymont apartment complex for $38 million, adding to a resurgence of the unincorporated Pennsylvania border community.
Olive Tree Management, an owner-operator of multifamily complexes in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, acquired the Hillside Pointe apartments off Philadelphia Pike in February, although the deed wasn’t recorded until late May, according to county land records.
Olive Tree already owned the Chateau Orleans and Valley Run multi-family communities in the Wilmington area. The Lakewood, N.J.-based firm has kept a low profile like other New Jersey-based investors that have increasingly acquired Delaware assets, such as Oakmark Management, Montium, Capital Management and more.
The 37-year-old community at 2616 Philadelphia Pike was acquired from AION Partners, a Philadelphia-based real estate owner and operator. It features one-to-four-bedroom units with monthly rents ranging from $1,380 to $1,650, according to online listings. With 206 units, the sale price translates to a per unit cost of more than $184,000.
The community also offers a swimming pool, fitness center and renovated kitchens.
Olive Tree did not respond to a request for comment on the sale.
Claymont has seen an increase in interest as the area has been economically depressed for most of the 21st century, ever since the former Evraz steel mill closed. The steel mill is now undergoing an ambitious mixed-use redevelopment called First State Crossing to create warehousing, office, retail and multi-family housing. The former Tri-State Mall is also planned to be razed and redeveloped as a distribution center.
In the state’s largest multi-family sale last year, a New York investment firm bought the Edge at Greentree apartment complex for $51.5 million, exemplifying the resources coming to an area deemed to be an up-and-coming cheaper bedroom community for the greater Philadelphia area.
Multi-family sales, especially in the Wilmington and Newark areas, continue to be one of the hottest asset classes for commercial real estate sales in Delaware right now. The sales have increased following the pandemic, and could continue as homebuyer interest falls amid higher residential home prices and rising mortgage interest rates, leading more people to continue renting.
Last year, six of the top 10 commercial real estate sales were in multi-family residential assets, according to Delaware Business Times research. Through August of this year, that trend has held, and the largest sales would be largely overtaken by multi-family assets if it wasn’t for Amazon-linked warehouse sales that hold the Top 3 spots.
