Newark native Pedro Gomes and his company Gomes Group are steadily unveiling a slew of new residential and commercial real estate projects in the area around Sussex Avenue and Norfolk Street in Newark.

For Gomes, who grew up in the Ironbound, it is the culmination of a vision born whole seven years ago, when he started acquiring property in the area (Gomes broke into real estate at age 21, when he flipped his first house).

Now those buildings are launching, or nearing launch, as fully realized retail, residential and business concepts, and Gomes says the vision that came to him “clear as day” for the area he now calls “Fownders District” is beginning to make sense for others who couldn’t see it at first.

The name is drawn from Fownders, a startup accelerator Gomes co-owns with entrepreneur Gerard Adams that is an anchor in the development. Gomes and his team are looking to spread the ethos of innovation and entrepreneurship being seeded at Fownders into a full “live, work, play” concept that might attract people, particularly millennials, to live and socialize in the real estate concepts being developed nearby. Related: With Fownders Newark, tech star Gerard Adams brings startup aspirations to the neighborhood

Neighborhood tour

In July, I walked through the area with Gomes himself. We started inside 140-142 Sussex Avenue. The brand new structure sits on the site once occupied, in part, by Holman Wine & Liquors and New Armory Tavern, on the corner of Sussex Avenue and Newark Street.

Now it’s a 23-unit mixed-use building whose apartment units feature open floor plans, hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances. A two-bedroom apartment there rents for $1,800. (For comparison’s sake, HUD calculates the “Fair Market Rent” for the surrounding 07103 zip code at $1,350. That’s the estimate for rents in the 40th percentile, meaning 60 percent of two-bedroom rents in the building’s zip code are priced higher than $1,350.)

Gomes also showed me an open-plan loft unit, still under construction at the time, that featured two bedrooms, high ceilings, recess lighting and a kitchen with an oversized island that can fit up to eight people. The loft was priced at $3,300. At the time I toured the building with Gomes, half of the units had already been pre-leased. As of this publishing, all apartments in the building have been rented.

Building residential is one thing, Gomes said, but the key to his overall project is the retail, work space and restaurants that will fill it out.

“It’s easy to build a [standalone] real estate project,” Gomes told me. “But it’s another to bring culture.” Gomes said that he is hoping to build amenities that consider all of the things millennials might like to do within steps of their residences. For Gomes, they’re the types of amenities that would make the crowd who shows up for a Startup Grind fireside chat at Fownders stay for a beer, a meal or a rooftop cocktail. And those that might motivate them choose to live there full-time. Related: Google-backed Startup Grind community will soon come to Newark

Gomes said he wants it to be the type of place students who graduate from nearby Rutgers and NJIT might want to live.

We walked out of the loft unit and over to the ground floor spaces facing Newark Street that will house commercial businesses including a yoga studio, coffee shop and a potential franchise that offers healthy food options. EG Muñoz Construction recently leased 1,800 feet of office space in the building as well. I asked Gomes how he developed concepts for the buildings.

“I try to take advantage of every inch in the building–I don’t like to leave anything behind,” he said. Indeed, as he described the retail spaces in 140 Sussex, Gomes discussed the flow of the property in terms of how an actual person might traverse it.

Gomes said he’s being deliberate about the types of commercial tenants that occupy the buildings in the development, with a preference for those that are aligned with the culture he’s trying to cultivate: food, art, tech and fitness.

Gomes selected the area because of its proximity to Broad Street Station and the Newark Light Rail stop at Norfolk Street, and because of the abundance of available lots for sale. The other draw: “thousands of students,” he said.

One of the features of the area, said Gomes, will be murals. He commissioned Venezuela-born painter Sebastian Ferreira, who created the artwork that appears in Fownders, to create murals on buildings throughout the development. Ferreira is the cousin of Antonio Dinis, a chef with whom Gomes co-owns three restaurants under the Porto by Antonio umbrella, including Munchies by Antonio at 42-48 Norfolk Street.

When I asked Gomes whether he planned on collaborating with Newark artists, he said that outreach is forthcoming. On October 12th there will be an art walk event in the neighborhood.

Next up on our tour: a digital production and meeting venue on Sussex Avenue, past Lock Street, where media/event strategy, planning, and production firm SuSu Productions has space. Both this venue and an art gallery directly across the street from it are in Baxter Park, the complex located on the former site of Baxter Terrace, the 500-unit housing projects that were demolished in 2012.

Gomes said his project has gotten positive reviews both from City Hall and from community residents. He said Mayor Ras Baraka “loved it” and complimented him on how comprehensive the concept is. He also said a diverse array of people who frequent the area–nearby residents, police and firefighters, city employees who work nearby–have complimented him on the concepts he’s bringing to the neighborhood.

“The neighbors are happy I’m bringing their house values up. The businesses are telling me people are knocking on their doors to buy their properties because other developers want to develop the area,” he said via email. “I welcome this because the more people building [in] the area, the better.”

In early September, I returned to the area in the proximity of 140 Sussex Avenue to hear what locals had to say. While the immediate area around Gomes’s buildings was bereft of residents at the time, I did meet a few business owners and workers who had been in the neighborhood a long time. They were all optimistic about what the new buildings and concepts might bring to the neighborhood, especially in light of their impression that the neighborhood has been safer overall in recent years.