East Orange is inching closer to transforming Sussex Avenue after a recent approval from city council of a tax incentive towards the redevelopment of the Kuzuri Kijiji apartment complex near the I-280 and Garden State Parkway interchange.
City officials agreed to adopt the ordinance for a payment in lieu of taxes agreement on Dec. 15. All members of the council voted to adopt the ordinance, except for one no vote and one abstention. The ordinance was first read and passed on Dec. 1.
The developer, 100 Sussex Urban Renewal LLC, will be allowed to deliver 662 apartments, over 1,000 parking spaces and approximately 30,000 square feet of commercial space in phases; 529 units will be priced at market rate, while 133 units will be allotted for residents earning less than 60% of the area median income, which was $135,300 in 2025, according to the text of the ordinance.
Despite the recent approval for the incentive, the city has been trying to redevelop the property for more than 14 years. Elected officials adopted a redevelopment plan for the property, which is 3 parcels, in November 2012, 11 months after the council declared the area in need of rehabilitation. However, it was not until February 2020 that the site itself was deemed an area in need of redevelopment and, therefore, made the project eligible for tax incentives.
Although the adoption of the ordinance marks a significant milestone in the redevelopment of the apartment community, many unanswered questions remain about the development’s timeline. Jersey Digs did not find any applications for the site, approved or pending on the city’s planning board website. On the other hand, records filed with the Essex County Register show that the apartment complex was last sold for $4.3 million in 2016. The seller, the New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency, transferred ownership of the property to East Orange Partners LLC and 100 Sussex LLC, based in Lakewood, two years after it acquired the apartment complex from Kuzuri Kijiji Non-Profit Housing Inc.
Despite the current dilapidated state of the apartment complex, its history spans over 50 years. A report in the New York Times from October 1973 says that the Kuzuri Kijiji community, whose name translates to ‘Beautiful Village’ from Swahili, opened as a cooperative town house complex with 247 units on 8.2 acres and cost $6.7 million to develop. The apartment complex included two and three-story townhouses and was designed for low and middle-income families in the city.
The report said that the developers decided not to seek a tax abatement from the city and said that an incentive for the property would be too much of a burden on taxpayers, but the project was backed by the New Jersey Housing Finance Agency. Jersey Digs was unable to contact 100 Sussex Urban Renewal LLC.
