A former public housing project that has continued to sit vacant in Newark’s South Ward might no longer be standing in 2022.
The Newark Housing Authority (NHA) is currently looking for companies interested in tearing down the old Seth Boyden Terrace Homes off Frelinghuysen Avenue in the Dayton neighborhood.
“The Housing Authority in partnership with the City of Newark [has] an aggressive timeline to have the complex demolished prior to the Thanksgiving holiday,” NHA Executive Director Victor Cirilo said.
The NHA is accepting bids from contractors until Friday, September 3.
“It is the NHA’s intent to select a qualified contractor to perform the demolition services,” an invitation for bids issued by the NHA says. “NHA prefers to award to a contractor with a minimum of 5 years of similar experience. It is NHA’s sole determination to award to a contractor that provides the best bid with consideration of the best cost to complete the service.”
Seth Boyden Terrace dates back 80 years. The 12-building complex was once home to more than 500 apartments and thousands of residents, but it has spent much of the last decade abandoned across the street from the Weequahic Golf Course.
Located in an industrial and residential area of New Jersey’s largest city, the 14-acre property is partially surrounded by fencing, with no shortage of boarded up and missing windows.
“The contractor will be responsible to complete a wet demolition, removal, and proper disposal of structures, concrete foundation, and contents of all existing vacant buildings and all existing garbage and waste on the site,” according to the bid invitation.
The demolition announcement comes while the NHA’s website shows that more than 12,000 applicants remain on the authority’s public housing and housing choice voucher program waiting list.
The exact plans for the premises after demolition takes place remain unclear. As Jersey Digs previously reported, a proposal to classify the site as a “non-condemnation area in need of redevelopment” was released last year, with a study stating that Seth Boyden Terrace had become a “dumping ground for the surrounding area.”
There has also been discussion of commercial and residential developers partnering with the NHA in relation to this location and its proximity to the upcoming Newark Liberty International Airport PATH stop, but no specifics have been released yet.
