The Newark Central Planning Board recently voted to approve a site plan to bring a new four-story apartment building to an empty lot near Branch Brook Park. The project will develop two parcels located at 249-257 Mount Prospect Avenue, at the corner of Mount Prospect and 3rd Avenue, and will bring 40 new apartments to the Forest Hill neighborhood in addition to 39 parking spaces.
Members of the planning board voted to approve the site plan with conditional variances on February 9.
A staff report from the board states that the parking garage will be located in the project’s basement. The ground floor of the building will consist of a utility room, vehicle and bicycle parking, a garbage room, as well as an elevator and two stairwells that will extend all the way to the rooftop of the apartment complex.
The building entrance will be on the first floor, which will also include 10 residential units. The second through fourth floors will consist of 10 apartments – eight 2-bedroom units and two 1-bedroom units. A total of 8 apartments will be set aside for affordable housing for residents earning between 60% and 80% of the area’s median income.
Residential amenities, including an exercise room, lounge, storage space, and a roof deck with a pergola, will be located on the building’s rooftop. Max Reynoso, a partner at Ridgeview Properties and the applicant listed in the report, clarified during the meeting that the new building will also include a lift-style parking garage that will accommodate the 14 parking spaces required for the new building. The building will also include 2 ADA-compliant spaces and 8 EV parking spaces.
While Ridgeview Properties’ own website lists three other residential projects in Brick City in the area around the Woodland Cemetery and Springfield Avenue in the West Ward, the project in Forest Hill is the first building that Ridgeview will develop in the North Ward. The project is similar in size – around 40 apartments – to Ridgeview’s apartment building located at 746-758 14th Street.
Records made public by the Essex County Clerk’s office show that Ridgeview has been in control of the two parcels at 249-257 Mount Prospect since 2021, when it paid approximately $1 million to two different owners. The parcels have an assessed value of $500,000 as of 2026, according to the Essex County Tax Board.
The approval from the Central Planning Board represents a significant step forward for a prominent lot in the Forest Hill section of the North Ward that has been vacant for many years. Its proximity to Bloomfield Avenue also adds to the project’s appeal, while the inclusion of affordable units will bolster Ridgeview’s case for obtaining a tax incentive from the city council in the near future.
