A six-story residential building under construction in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Newark recently secured a 30-year tax incentive agreement after members of the city’s municipal council voted to approve the legislation. The developer, a limited-liability firm based in Cresskill, will deliver 48 market-rate units and eight affordable units to the parcel at 1007-1009 Broad Street, less than one block from Newark Symphony Hall.
An application filed to the city’s Central Planning Board in 2022 says that the project will span approximately 60,000 square feet and include 1,975 square feet of retail space. The project also includes parking for 29 cars, a lobby, a bike storage room, and a lounge.
That application was filed by Lamont Cater, the owner of investment firm Offshore Capital Investment, based in Cresskill. However, Carter told Jersey Digs that the project was sold to the limited-liability firm currently building the project – 1007-1009 Broad Development Urban Renewal LLC – which is associated with real estate investor Wayne Fox.
The 30-year agreement, known as a Payment in Lieu of Tax agreement, replaces traditional property taxes with an annual payment initially set at 10% of the building’s Annual Gross Revenue from its residential units and retail space. This payment is subject to a mandatory escalating minimum, requiring the developer to pay at least 20% of the taxes otherwise due starting in year 16, rising to 80% in the final year of the exemption.
Records filed with the Essex County Register show that the deed for the project site was transferred in February 2023. There is no record of an official groundbreaking for the project. Still, construction appears to have been well underway by the time that Newark’s municipal council agreed to approve the tax incentive agreement.
Jersey Digs was unable to contact Wayne Fox.
A city archive from Google Maps shows that while the parcel sat vacant from 2012 to December 2024, almost 12 years, construction had already begun by July of this year. The structure appears to have been topped out by mid-November.
When the project is completed, the apartment building will revitalize a lot that has sat vacant for more than a decade. An archive from 1999 at the Newark Public Library states that the property at 1007-1009 Broad Street, before it was torn down, was the site of a hotel that was later turned into an apartment complex. The hotel, known as the Elberon, was built in 1905 and spanned six stories, but was later turned into the Central City Apartments.
A report in NJ.com said that the structure was significantly damaged in 2009 after a four-alarm fire engulfed the top two floors of the building. The report noted that investigators later found that the fire had been started by a 51-year-old woman in a domestic dispute with her 77-year-old boyfriend.
A 2011 report says the fire displaced over a dozen residents of the building and that over 100 firefighters were at the scene.
The woman was initially indicted on charges of attempted murder, aggravated arson, and causing widespread injury, but the charges were later dismissed after she was found unfit to stand trial. The same report says that the building was eventually torn down, leaving only the ground-floor walls standing.
On the other hand, the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Brick City has seen significant investment in mixed-use apartments over the last 15 years in the area immediately surrounding the Elberon site. Developer RPM Development Group has two mixed-use projects with nearly 200 units in the immediate vicinity of the Elberon site – 999 Broad Street and 60 Nevada Street.
The parcel across the street from the Elberon Site, next to the Newark Symphony Hall, is also poised for redevelopment after its owner, Newark-based investment firm Paramount Assets, tore down the dilapidated building at 1010 Broad Street. Jersey Digs reported in October 2019 that Paramount went before the Central Planning Board to secure site plan approval for a five-story building with 111 units and retail space; however, the site remains empty.
Although investment in apartment buildings continues to move the neighborhood forward, the ruins of the South Park Calvary United Presbyterian Church at the corner of Broad Street and Lincoln Park anchor the new buildings to the area’s long history. The church, located at the most prominent corner of the neighborhood, was first constructed in 1853 but was destroyed in 1992 after a fire consumed everything except the facade. By filling the long-empty lot just steps away, the apartment building at the Elberon site is the latest sign that the neighborhood is moving forward.
