The New Jersey Economic Development Authority recently agreed to support the construction of a four-story senior housing complex at the former site of the Trenton Junior One Middle School in the state capital.
The project, known as THA Senior, is located at 800 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Trenton’s North Ward and will include 107 affordable units for seniors, commercial space, and a 7,400-square-foot daycare facility.
A prepared statement from the EDA says the agency will grant a tax credit through its Aspire program of up to $54.3 million, or 85% of the total project cost.
The project will include a fitness center, community room, outdoor patio, walking path, a parking lot, and playground equipment. It will also make community programs available to neighborhood residents, including workforce development, senior services, education and youth sports, financial empowerment, and early learning.
A report in NBC10 Philadelphia states that the units at the project will be allotted to senior residents earning 60% of the area median income and that the developers, the Trenton Housing Authority and PRC, are slated to commence construction in December.
The new mixed-use building is expected to take about 2 years to complete.
A prepared statement from the city says that the Junior One Middle School site spans 1.85 acres and has been closed since 2007. A fire damaged the school in 2023, and the building was later demolished in 2025.
An archive from Abandoned America states that the school opened in 1916 as Trenton Junior High No. 1 and was the first junior high school on the East Coast. Construction took two years, and the building cost about $260,000 to build. The archive notes that plans for a senior housing complex had been in the works before the building burned down in 2023, but never materialized.
Records from the Trenton Planning Board show that the final site plan for the project was approved in April.
The project has secured additional public funding sources since then – in addition to the tax credit from the EDA. The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development agreed to provide a $900,000 grant under its Choice Neighborhood Implementation Plan.
The New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency has also agreed to provide permanent financing for the project on September 3, according to a report in the Trenton Journal.
The Trenton Housing Authority owns and manages 11 housing developments and approximately 1,700 residences.
