After 100 Years, Hazen Investments Says There’s Still A Strong Market For Affordable Apartments In Uptown Saint John
SAINT JOHN – During its 100 years as a family-run business, Saint John-based Hazen Investments has been in the business of buying and managing properties, not selling them.
“I’ve been here 25 years and we never sold anything,” says John Hazen, general manager of Hazen Investments. “My dad’s been here 50-some years and we’ve sold about two things.”
But this week Hazen Investments sold a lot of things: its entire uptown Saint John portfolio, which consists of 20 buildings, 150 units, and around 150 parking spots, to another Saint John developer and property manager, Historica Developments.
Hazen Investments was approached at the end of last year by Historica’s president and CEO Keith Brideau about a potential sale. Hazen says a lot of factors went into their decision to sell.
“Family history, business, our family at this point in time in our lives. All of those were decisions we had to go through in order to make the decision to make a sale,” says Hazen.
“We’ve always been of the attitude that we don’t really sell stuff. Selling a large number at once was really the only option for us and Historica came to us with that option which was something we were willing to look at. It made sense to us and with a heavy heart we made the decision to do it based on the business.”
RELATED: Historica Enters Mid-Level Rental Market With Purchase Of Hazen’s Uptown Properties
Though they knew it was the right move for the business, Hazen says the sale has been difficult on them personally.
“We’ve had some great employees and some great tenants over the years and we’ve had great relationships with these people,” he says. “You’re left with a feeling of leaving people behind when you make a decision like this.”
Hazen says the company didn’t know much about Historica’s operations before the sale, though they were a fan of the work they did, which he says positively impacted their business too.
“I’ve been a big fan of what they’ve done with the vacant buildings that they renovated and upgraded, the project where they took that car park and turned into Picaroons … their work has been fantastic. I think it’s been a big help to us,” says Hazen.
“One of the things I said to Keith [Brideau] when we first met was … the stuff he’s done has helped me because he’s helped bring people to the uptown and that helps us with all our uptown properties as well.”
Since news of the sale broke yesterday, Hazen Investments has been fielding a lot of phone calls from tenants.
“They’re concerned, I guess that would be the best way to put it,” says Hazen.
“With us, we’ve been around long enough and some of our tenants have been long-term with us and they know us and they know what to expect from us and I think this is a new change. Everyone has concerns about what kind of change and how it’s going to affect their lives.”
The news of the sale sparked debate and fears among tenants and non-tenants alike about what it would mean for affordable rental options in uptown Saint John.
To date, most of Historica’s projects have involved complete transformations of older buildings that are then rented at higher luxury price points (think around $1,500 to 1,800 or more). Meanwhile, monthly rents from Hazen’s uptown properties ranged from $500 to $1,000.
Brideau has said publically that he plans to keep the units in the mid-market price range, and upgrades to the buildings would be minimal. But that hasn’t eased a lot of people’s fears of huge rent increases and being priced out of uptown Saint John.
Hazen says converting the buildings into higher-end units wouldn’t make much business sense.
“I wouldn’t see a benefit to him or to the city to try to advance these buildings to the upper range. We’ve been very busy and over the last five years and had low vacancies in the market that we’re currently in,” says Hazen. “In my opinion and from what I heard, I would agree with him that the middle of the market is a good market and it’s there. I think he’s going to plan to keep it there.”
Over the last few years, almost all of the major housing developments in the uptown have been catered to the higher end market, targeting well-off young professionals and ’empty-nesters’ looking to move out of the suburbs.
But Hazen says business for more affordable units has also been booming. Hazen Investments had a waitlist of people hoping to score one of their units.
“In the last five and six years, I found the market has been really strong for the specific types of apartments that I’ve been trying to rent. We’ve been running waiting lists and we’ve been running prospective tenants lists. If we put an ad up these days on Kijiji, I could get 15 or 20 responses by the next day,” says Hazen.
“I think there’s a strong market for the style of apartments we had been renting and I think it’s going to continue.”
As for the future of Hazen Investments, the company will continue to manage the 270 apartments left in its portfolio, which includes Regency Towers and 45 newer units off of Colbrook Cresent, both on the city’s east side. Hazen says they’re also not ruling out any new investments in the future.
“I’m definitely not counting that out … We don’t have any plans right now, but I would definitely not count that out in our future,” he says.