A 66-unit rent-controlled apartment complex in Belleville has changed hands for $14 million, with the undisclosed buyer paying more than $212,000 per unit for the property at 550 Washington Ave. The seller, Axial Partners, completed the sale of Washington Heights, a three-building garden apartment community that has stood in the township since 1972.
Adam Zweibel of Hudson Atlantic Realty brokered the sale for the seller. The identity of the buyer was not disclosed in the reporting on the deal.
Washington Heights consists of three three-story garden apartment buildings spread across two acres, with a unit mix of 48 one-bedroom homes and 18 two-bedroom homes, each with a single bathroom. The age and layout are typical of the garden-style rental stock that has long defined much of Belleville's rental housing.
Broker Calls It a Record Price Amid High Borrowing Costs
Zweibel said the transaction set a new per-unit record for rent-controlled garden apartments in Belleville, a notable benchmark given that it closed while the 10-year Treasury was hovering around a 20-plus-year high — a rate environment that typically makes financing acquisitions more expensive. Despite that backdrop, Zweibel said the sale shows how deep investor demand remains for well-located New Jersey multifamily properties.
The deal involved Abe Weinberg and Axial Partners, and Zweibel described the sale as a record price.
Part of a Broader Belleville Multifamily Boom
The Washington Heights sale is not the only major multifamily deal to hit Belleville recently. River Rock Capital paid $55.5 million for The Essex, a 158-unit property at 100 Washington Ave. in central Belleville, according to Multi-Housing News. That five-story, pet-friendly building came online in 2024 and includes 10,000 square feet of first-floor retail space, a stark contrast to the decades-old garden-style construction at Washington Heights.
The same report noted that New Jersey recorded 57 multifamily communities totaling 7,237 units changing ownership through November, with transaction pace up 117.2 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. It also found the state's average multifamily sale price climbed to $314,666 per unit, a 13.2 percent increase from $278,085 previously.
Rent Control at Washington Heights
Washington Heights is a rent-controlled 66-unit complex. The Town of Belleville's Rent Leveling Board page describes an ordinance for multi-dwelling properties with four or more rental units and states that landlords may not raise rent by more than 5% annually.
