A New Jersey property investment firm spent $85.25 million last year to buy a 16-story apartment building in Rego Park, Queens. The firm, Treetop Development LLC, is spending another $7 million on upgrades to the building, called Saxon Hall.
The Teaneck, N.J., company, which already had investments in New Jersey and Manhattan, is now negotiating to buy two other properties in Queens.
“For years Queens lagged behind Manhattan and Brooklyn in terms of growth and only now is catching up,” said Adam Mermelstein, a principal at Treetop. “We’d like to be part of the upswing.”
According to a report to be released today, Treetop has plenty of company in the booming market for apartment properties. Investors spent $1.36 billion to buy multifamily properties in Queens in 2013, more than double the amount in 2012 and almost 3.5 times the amount spent in 2011, according to the report from Ariel Property Advisors, a real-estate investment sales company.
