New Jersey & Company Magazine

By Eric C. Peterson

Alan R. Hammer is a renowned New Jersey real estate attorney and powerful real estate player in his own right. Hammer has steered his firm, Brach Eichler L.L.C. (formerly WolfBlock), through multiple incarnations, and even served as interim director of Kushner Companies when that firm passed through some very troubled waters in 2005.

He also owns, through partnerships, a substantial portfolio of multifamily properties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And Hammer has a solid real estate pedigree—his father, Morris, co-founded Gebroe-Hammer Associates.

New Jersey & Company visited with Hammer recently in his Roseland office.

It’s been a year since the law firm WolfBlock was dissolved and the New Jersey office reconstituted itself, taking its original name, Brach Eichler. How has that transition gone?

We just finished our first fiscal year and we did well. It’s not the old firm of the same name, although it looks like the old firm. We’re still in the same place and most of the lawyers are the same. We’re pleased—we have no debt and had a good year, making more money than we did at WolfBlock. What we’d like to do now is grow organically—perhaps add some practice groups and partners, but, basically, stay the kind of firm we are.

Real estate was, for many years, our biggest area, and is still an important part of our practice. But healthcare has overtaken real estate because of a combination of the economy and the strength of our healthcare practice. We are starting to see some pickup in real estate, however.

Were there any particular challenges in the firm’s transition?

Not really. We did borrow some money initially, and we made a deal with the WolfBlock wind-down committee to buy our accounts receivable and work in process. We had never had that much debt before, so that made us a little nervous. But we paid it off fairly quickly.

You were the acting chairman of the Kushner Companies during a very trying time for that company, which has been well-documented. How did you balance that responsibility with your ongoing law practice?

I not only ran Kushner and had my law practice, I also ran my own real estate business, consisting of apartments throughout New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. At the time, I was the managing partner here, a position I gave up because I couldn’t do everything. I spent most of my days at Kushner and would come here late in the afternoon to make sure my clients were covered. With the computer and telephone, you can be in different places, and I had a secretary in each office. We had no fall-out—in fact, when I was at Kushner, my law practice was the biggest it ever was.

You own a large apartment portfolio—how’s that market doing right now?

Of all the investment real estate markets, it’s probably performing the best. That being said, we are the most challenged we’ve been since I’ve been in the business—and I bought my first building in 1972. Owners of apartments in New Jersey have been “blessed” with a housing shortage—since World War II, the supply of housing was never equal to the demand. Consequently, especially in North Jersey, our occupancy has always been close to 100 percent.

Now, however, demand is no longer greater than the supply, and we have vacancies in markets where we’ve never had them. We’re competing with single-family housing perhaps for the first time in my career, because of a combination of foreclosures and condominiums not being sold, prices being depressed, and the fact that rents grew so much during the boom years. What we’re seeing now is that rents are not really growing—street rents are less in many cases than the rents we’re getting from existing tenants.

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