Contact: Kurt Praschak / [email protected] / 973.992-7800, x.289
After 60 years and four generations, a family
parts ways with large chunk of Wall Township
Sheldon Gross Realty sells last remnants of
property owned by relatives since 1960s
4810 Belmar Blvd., Wall Township, NJ Sheldon Gross, undated photo
Click for high-resolution images
WALL TOWNSHIP, NJ (April 15, 2024) – Real estate transactions happen every day. Very few are six decades and four generations of family history in the making.
But the recent sale of a Wall Township office building certainly was.
Located on a bit more than four acres, this structure at 4810 Belmar Boulevard was acquired by CTC Holdings, LLC, in a transaction brokered by Sheldon Gross Realty Senior Vice President Jonathan Gross, Executive Vice President Jonathan Glick, and President Marcy Gross. The purchase price for the 24,000-square-foot building was $5.2 million. Yet, the story actually began way back in the early 1960s.
“My father Sheldon Gross was a young man when his grandfather, Solomon Gross, gifted he and his brother Peter a 300-acre tract in Wall Township,” explains Marcy Gross, who now heads up the agency her father – an icon of New Jersey commercial real estate – established in 1962. “That was in 1964, when there wasn’t much in Wall Township … so, my father was undecided about how to use the land. Ultimately, after buying out Peter, he took a wait-and-see approach.”
Ideally, the property would have been a cleared lot, ready for development. Unfortunately, that’s far from what Sheldon had on his hands. Solomon had already subdivided it into many small lots, with the expectation that these would be bought up by people anxious to build vacation bungalows. As a result, the land was an extremely irregular shape, with multiple gaps throughout. The streets between the residential lots existed only on paper.
“It took quite a while to reassemble that property and make it whole again,” explains Jonathan Gross, who is Sheldon’s son. “I helped my father during his ongoing negotiations with the town.”
Jonathan Glick adds: “Sheldon actually gifted some of the property to Wall Township. And as for those small residential lots, we bought quite a few of them back. This made sense from a business perspective – but it was a challenge, since much of the formal paperwork was inaccurate or had been lost.”
Slowly, surely, Sheldon – with support from Jonathan Glick – was able to reassemble a large, contiguous tract for development. He constructed an office building with room for multiple tenants – and Sheldon Gross Realty’s Wall Township office was among them. In 2001, a 60,000-square-foot, flex structure rose right along Belmar Boulevard and was sold a short time after.
The transition from development to sales has been underway for about a decade. In 2016, the final open land – 42 total acres – was sold. In 2022, Sheldon passed away at the age of 94 and the agency that bears his name worked in earnest to part with the final remnants of the Wall Township property.
That process concluded, once and for all, with the sale of 4810 Belmar Boulevard.
“It’s certainly bittersweet,” Marcy acknowledges. “That property might have presented challenges through the years, but it always reminded me of my father … and now the last bit of it is gone. That said, my father always looked toward the positive, so that’s what I’m trying to do. He’d be extremely proud that when the time came to part ways with the property, it was his own family that sold it. Now, it’s up to other people and other families to take advantage of the opportunities tied to that section of Wall Township.”
About Sheldon Gross Realty
Based in New Jersey, Sheldon Gross Realty, Inc. offers clients a broad array of specialized services, including office, industrial and retail brokerage; tenant representation; property and asset management; office relocation; and consulting. Founded in 1962, the firm is known for its long-term client relationships, high percentage of repeat business, and a stellar 95 percent success rate in leasing/selling the property assignment it undertakes. Featuring an exceptional team of professionals renowned for outstanding customer service and committed to unparalleled market research, Sheldon Gross Realty addresses its clients’ corporate real estate needs on a local, regional, and national scale.
Additional information is available online at www.sheldongrossrealty.com. A free consultation is available by calling 862.930-5714.
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