A proposal to develop a new five-story senior housing complex on an empty plot on North Arlington Avenue in the city of East Orange recently secured an official endorsement from the city’s municipal council. Officials voted unanimously to approve an ordinance granting a 30-year tax break to the entity behind the proposal, 150 N Arlington Ave Propco LLC, on June 22.
Meeting materials state that the LLC intends to build a 100% affordable building with 46 parking spaces at 148-152 North Arlington Avenue. The project will span a combined 32,000 square feet and include 50 units for residents older than 54 years old. It will include 44 one-bedroom apartments, five supportive housing units, and one unit for a superintendent, along with 46 parking spaces.
A social interaction lounge, exercise room, and health consultant room are also planned for the new apartment building.
The approval from the city council comes less than two months after the East Orange Planning Board voted to approve a site plan application for the project. However, unlike the ordinance adopted by the city council, the planning board’s resolution stipulates that the project will include 51 parking spaces instead of 46.
The proposal from 150 N Arlington appears to be a new iteration of a different project that was abandoned sometime before 2024.
Records made public by the Essex County Register show that the two lots were acquired by New York-based real estate finance firm Neighborhood Properties of NJ LLC, which is affiliated with Local Initiatives Support Corporation, in August 2025 as part of a sheriff’s auction.
A release from Local Initiatives from July 2021 says the firm provided $1.4 million in funding to East Orange-based real estate firm ProudLiving Companies to develop a 51-unit, mixed-income apartment building.
The mortgage to ProudLiving had a 6.5% interest rate, and the sale of the parcels was intended to satisfy an outstanding balance of $1.6 million for the mortgage as of December 2023, according to the sheriff’s deed. The Chancery Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey ordered the sale of the two parcels in January 2024, and Local Initiatives, the sole bidder in the auction, bid $100 for both plots.
An LLC affiliated with ProudLiving paid $310,000 for the two parcels in December 2017.
ProudLiving’s website says the firm has invested in at least 11 properties in East Orange since it was founded in 2008.
Records from the Essex County Tax Board state that the two parcels have had a combined estimated value of $528,000 for the last three years.
The city council also opted to pull an ordinance that would have granted a tax break for the rehabilitation of an apartment building at 50 South Munn Avenue. That legislation would have funded the rehabilitation of 205 units of senior and disabled housing. Jersey Digs confirmed the legislation was pulled after the council held a public hearing on the ordinance.
