The city council for the City of Passaic recently voted to approve a tax incentive towards the rehabilitation of Speer Village, the city’s largest public housing complex. Officials voted to approve the legislation during the city council’s most recent meeting held on May 19.
Although the city council has not made the text of the legislation public online as of May 30, a report in NorthJersey.com says that officials approved a 30-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Speer Village Preservation Owner LLC. The agreement, according to the report, is needed for the Passaic Housing Authority, the property owner, to secure $41 million in funding from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency.
A public notice from the city says that Passaic Mayor Hector Lora approved the agreement on May 26.
Jersey Digs reported in February 2025 that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the rehabilitation and redevelopment plan for the apartment complex, which would also convert a significant number of units from public housing to HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration program.
The plan approved by HUD calls for the demolition of two residential buildings with 128 apartments and an office building, and the rehabilitation of 256 units across the four buildings at 19, 23, 33, and 45 Aspen Place. The office building at 52 Aspen Place, which was slated for demolition, would make way for a new mixed-income apartment building with 120 units.
The HUD report estimated that it would cost between $150,000 and $175,000 to rehabilitate each unit, and that the entire project would cost between $38 million and $48.5 million.
Another report from January 2025 on NorthJersey.com says that the Westchester, New York-based real estate firm L+M Development Partners will be involved in the project; however, the developer did not return Jersey Digs’ request for comment.
The Speer Village apartment complex was completed in 1953 and cost approximately $5 million to develop. It was named after inventor and winemaker Alfred Speer, who became the city’s first superintendent in 1866, following the incorporation of the former municipalities of Acquackanonk, Acquackanonk Landing, and Paterson Landing into the city of Passaic in 1854. Speer is credited with laying the first sidewalk in the city and constructing the first brick building in the city, the Speer’s Wine Warehouse, the latter of which was completed in 1866. The Speer’s Wine Warehouse building was torn down in the 1960s to make way for N.J. Route 21.
According to a 1987 archive from the Passaic Historical Society, Speer was born in November 1823 to a family of Dutch ancestry.
