A new residential building has been proposed for 18-26 New York Avenue and 17-29 Garden Street, between New Jersey Railroad Avenue and McWhorter Street, in the city’s East Ward. According to a legal notice, the developer, Johnson Street-based New York Garden Associates, Inc., is planning for the building to be seven stories tall with 79 residential units atop parking spaces.
In order to create the development, New York Garden Associates President Antonio Gomes is seeking approvals for non-permitted use, building type, insufficient lot area, insufficient parking, and other variances. Gomes is also planning to combine seven existing lots at the site, the notice states.
The property where the building could rise has sat vacant in a residential and industrial area, between multifamily houses, Yes Supermarket, and a poultry facility, for at least a decade, surrounded by a barbed wire fence. An abandoned graffiti-covered tractor-trailer has sat on the Garden Street side of the tract for over nine years. Newark Penn Station is within walking distance of the site, as is a stop on NJ Transit Bus 34 to Bloomfield and Montclair.
Newark’s Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) heard the proposal during its last meeting on Thursday, January 12th at 7:00pm at City Hall.
New York Garden Associates’ proposal is far from the only development coming to the community. Just across the street from the property at 13-31 New York Avenue, ZBA records show that Yglesias Residential properties, LLC is planning to demolish the existing structure and build a five-story 60-unit building with a parking garage and a four-story six-unit building with a gym in its place. The ZBA granted preliminary and final site plan approval with conditions to Yglesias in April. A few blocks away, MNP Management, LLC is planning a new five-story mixed use building at 273-283 East Kinney Street with 96 residential units, all of which will be reserved for senior citizens.
