JERSEY CITY — A new $15 million homeless shelter may rise in Downtown Jersey City, part of a deal between city government, the Archdiocese of Newark and real estate developers Claremont Companies that would pave the way for a 430-unit residential building constructed on the site of the 32-year-old St. Lucy’s shelter.

Claremont Companies has agreed to fully fund the creation of the new, 150-bed shelter in exchange for city approval to build 390 more units than current zoning allows. The city Planning Board is expected to give the zoning change its approval on Tuesday.

Mayor Steve Fulop and other city officials announced the news at a Thursday press conference at the City Hall annex on Martin Luther King Drive. Fulop called the deal a “creative” way to fund a needed homeless shelter without digging into taxpayers’ wallets.

The new, five-story shelter would have rooms for 150 homeless people, space for 14 people living with HIV/AIDS and six units of permanent housing. It would be located across the street from the current shelter, which houses roughly 150 people a night, about 25 over its capacity, according to John Westervelt, CEO of the archdiocese’s Catholic Charities.

The new shelter would be constructed before the 430-unit building, which would rise about 20 stories.

The current shelter is on Grove Street near what was once St. Lucy’s Church, founded in 1884. On Christmas Eve 1986, Catholic Charities began running the St. Lucy’s school building as a homeless shelter and the rectory for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Fulop said the city heard a few proposals from developers willing to fund a shelter in exchange for zoning approvals but Claremont’s plan would not relocate the shelter out of the city’s Downtown, an area home to almost all of the city’s luxury housing development in the last three decades.

“Our priority was to keep it in the vicinity of the current shelter,” he said.

Fulop said the city will not give Claremont tax abatements or city-funded bonds for the residential project, which will include mostly market-rate units with some affordable housing.

Bishop Manuel A. Cruz called the new shelter plan a “great blessing that comes from the hand of a god who loves us with no conditions.”

“For decades the Catholic Charities ministries at St Lucy’s has been critical to serving the needs of so many poor men and women here in Downtown Jersey City,” Cruz said. “From the earliest days when those standing with me here today began talking about the future, we have hoped and worked together to ensure that the church can continue to be present and to assist the poor and others in need.”

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.