For the first time in generations, new apartment buildings are set to be constructed on properties within a stone’s throw of Lincoln Park on Jersey City’s West Side.
One of the latest proposals calls for building a five-story development at 186-188 Kensington Avenue, a site just west of Delaware Avenue that sits steps away from one of the entrances to the park. According to a legal notice, the new building is slated to consist of 12 residential units, with seven parking spaces provided for residents on the premises.
The project is being proposed by 188 Kensington, LLC, of Jersey City, which acquired 186 Kensington Avenue in December 2015 for $171,000 from one of its former occupants and 188 Kensington Avenue in October of that year for $220,000 at a sheriff’s sale, according to NJ Parcels data. The company’s plans were granted Preliminary and Final Major Site Plan approval by the Jersey City Zoning Board of Adjustment on December 7th with conditions and variances for use, height, curb cut width, driveway aisle width, and parking space dimensions.
The site is situated between two apartment buildings and the tracts previously contained two houses. However, according to The Jersey Journal, a three-alarm fire in October 2014 caused severe damage to the vacant house at 188 Kensington Avenue, prompting it to subsequently be demolished. Meanwhile, the neighboring home at 186 Kensington Avenue was also damaged, causing its resident to be displaced and for several windows to be boarded up.
This area of Ward B is filled with prewar apartment buildings along with single and multifamily residential properties. However, there has been very little new construction in the neighborhood in recent decades, but as projects such as this and another 12-unit building at nearby 272-276 Duncan Avenue continue to be proposed, that is likely to change in the coming years.
