Sym Investments Picks Up New Jersey Apartments for $80M
The property was completed in 2022.
Sym Investments has completed its $80 million purchase of SilverLake Apartments, a 232-unit market-rate community in Belleville, N.J. three miles north of Newark. The seller was Klein Enterprises.
JLL represented both Sym Investments and Klein Enterprises, and facilitated a fixed-rate $56 million loan through Freddie Mac with a five-year term. The financing will be serviced by JLL Real Estate Capital, a Freddie Mac Optigo Lender. Previously, the property had been subject to a $47 million loan originated by Manufacturers and Traders Trust Co. in 2020.
According to Yardi Matrix, SilverLake was completed in 2022 and includes two five-story buildings with a mix of studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments. Units feature elevated ceilings, washers and dryers. Common-area amenities include a lounge, an outdoor courtyard, a fitness center and a business center. The units average 766 square feet and in 2025 the average rent was $2,427 a month, according to Yardi Matrix data.
READ ALSO: Multifamily Predictions for 2026
The property is located at 155 & 165 Belmont Ave. Given its proximity to the SilverLake Light Rail Station, the property counts as transit-oriented. The station provides a 15-minute ride to Newark Penn Station and a total 40-minute commute to New York Penn Station.
The community is currently 94 percent occupied and benefits from a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement with 27 years remaining. SilverLake also includes about 17,000 square feet of commercial space that is entirely leased. One commercial tenant occupies 71 percent of that space under a lease that runs through 2035.
Sym Investments is an active buyer of institutional-quality assets, with total acquisitions approaching $1 billion in recent years. The company has completed more than $250 million in asset sales over the past half decade. Klein Enterprises is a private owner of 3.5 million square feet of commercial properties with a portfolio of about 3,000 multifamily units owned or in development.
Multifamily lending lags other property types
As interest rates dropped in 2025, lending originations for income-producing properties spiked, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Multifamily lending in Q3 2025 rose a modest 27 percent year-over-year. That compares with a 181 percent increase for office, 100 percent for retail and 66 percent for lodging in the same quarter.
For the entire spectrum of commercial property lending, the dollar volume of loans originated by investor-driven lenders increased by 83 percent compared with a year ago. There was a 52 percent increase in loans by depository lenders, a 40 percent increase in loans by the GSEs, a 5 percent increase in CMBS loans and a 4 percent decrease in life company loans.
At the same time as volume increased, lending standards tightened, the Mortgage Bankers Association also reports. Its Mortgage Credit Availability Index dropped by 2.6 percentage points in December to 104.7. A decline for the index means tightening lending standards, while increases point to loosening credit. The organization benchmarked the index to 100 in March 2012.
