Officials in Newark are continuing to sell city-owned property to developers at below-market rates. Now, Jersey Digs has learned that one of those developers is planning to construct “affordable housing” on three tracts that it recently acquired from City Hall.

Ascension Capital Partners I, LLC, which is registered out of Curran Unger, LLP’s offices in the Dryden Mansion, is planning to construct two houses at 41, 43, and 45-47 Astor Street near the corner of Frelinghuysen and Sherman Avenues. City records show that each home will contain units for three families and that construction on the 7,174.3 square foot site is expected to be completed within 18 months after Ascension Capital Partners I takes ownership of the lots.

The properties are all located side-by-side in the East Ward and have been the site of illegal dumping over the years. These tracts, which sit within two blocks of service from seven New Jersey Transit bus lines, have long been vacant undeveloped lots with broken sidewalks in front, but possibly not for much longer. During its meeting on Jan. 10, the Newark Municipal Council approved the Newark Department of Economic and Housing Development’s plan to sell all three lots to the developer for a combined $28,697.20, based on a $4 per square foot standard. The resolution shows that 90% of the sale’s proceeds will go to Newark’s Community and Economic Development Dedicated Trust Fund while the rest will be put into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

The company is also responsible for a proposal that we reported on last year to convert an abandoned three-story building at the corner of Clinton Avenue and Johnson Avenue in the South Ward into three apartments.