Copperwood Apartments in Princeton sold to a real estate company
Architect J. Robert Hillier has sold the Copperwood apartment complex he designed and developed on Bunn Drive in Princeton to a New Jersey-based real estate company.
According to public records, the property was sold for $70 million to Copperwood Associates, which is part of Shamco Management, a privately held real estate management firm that buys, repositions, managing, finances, and disposes of residential property in New York and New Jersey. Established in 1980, the firm has offices in Edison and currently manages more than 1,000 apartment units in New York and New Jersey.
“What we learned, during the sales process, was that, in the real estate community, Copperwood is considered one of the most elegant multifamily projects in the entire state of New Jersey,” Hillier said of the sale in an email responding to a Planet Princeton inquiry.
Hillier said Copperwood residents were notified about the change in ownership. He also said the same on-site staff members who were working at Copperwood would continue under the new ownership.
Copperwood, which is located at 300 Bunn Drive, has 153 one- and two-bedroom rental units.
Hillier, who has offices in Princeton and lives in New Hope, Pa., spent almost a decade making his vision for the project a reality. Prior to his project, builder Hovnanian received approvals in 2005 to build 140 condominiums for residents 62 and older at the site. The plan faced legal battles, and then a scarcity of buyers convinced the company to abandon the project. I
n late 2007, Hillier came forward with his proposal for the site, which was proposed as an apartment development for people 55 and older. The complex is located on the environmentally sensitive Princeton Ridge. Environmentalists filed a lawsuit against the municipality in 2011 challenging the zoning for the 21-acre site. The footprint of the development was decreased and a portion of the land was deeded to the municipality to be preserved as open space as part of a settlement. Copperwood was opened in the fall of 2014. Hiller later asked that the age restrictions for the site be lifted.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
How wonderful if Mr. Hillier would devote some of the profits to preserving the environmentally-sensitive Princeton Ridge as healthy open space for our community.