NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - A new apartment high rise will be coming to downtown New Brunswick in the next few years, after city officials approved the project application at the December 11 Planning Board meeting.

The ​location at 90 New Street and sandwiched between the New Brunswick Elks Lodge and Rockoff Hall, which primarily houses Rutgers ​University ​students.

Sitting on half an acre, the 21-story mixed use apartment building will include 2,000 square feet of retail on the first floor, 186 units and 250 parking spots.

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For the past several years, the property has been owned by 90 New Street, LLC., based out of South Huntington, NY.

Developers are planning to market the majority of the units towards students, according to Jason Doorndos, Executive Vice President of Development at Landmark Properties, the site’s developer.

In New Brunswick, there’s “a strong demand for students, especially in the past three to five years,” Doornbos said.

To that end, the site will have amenities that cater to such a demographic, according to Doornbos, such as study rooms, a fitness center, a Starbucks vending machine and an outdoor rooftop lounge.

“We see in a lot of college towns that universities have grown and they’ve kind of maxed out on their on-campus housing,” Doornbos said. “What it’s done is push the students out into the single-family neighborhoods.”





The 186 units will fit upwards of 680 inhabitants; consisting of 23 studio units, 60 two-bedroom units, four three-bedroom units, 58 four-bedroom units, and 41 five-bedroom units.

Family units, or those with five-person occupancy, will be at the lower levels, naturally separated from the two and three person units located at the upper levels.

The building would have 100 parking spaces on site, with another 150 spots that the New Brunswick Parking Authority committed from ​the ​nearby Morris Street ​p​arking ​d​eck.

“Given the mass transit options, the Rutgers bus network, we feel that we’re providing the right amount of stalls for our development,” Roche said.

The parking authority has made commitments in the Morris ​d​eck to The George nearby, as well as Rockoff Hall, according to Mitch Karon, the executive director of the parking authority.

“What we find is that of the units, not the bedrooms, we’re getting about 50 percent demand for parking, so it’s less than what we’ve expected,” Karon said. “The fact that people rely on mass transit, bicycles, the Rutgers buses.”

And, Karon added, daytime and commuter parking that typically depends on the Morris Street

​parking ​d​eck would instead use the 300-space parking deck adjacent to the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, once it’s completed in 2019.

Restaurant and theater users ​could also use the NBPAC deck rather than the Morris Street Parking Deck, according to Karon.

Though Michael Sisler, a local New Brunswick resident, took issue with concentration of additional students in that part of the city.

“It brings a concentration of students to that area, an area that’s not really a student housing area. It’s not on Douglass or Cook, or not at the College Avenue Campus,” Sisler said. “This is an additional concentration of students. Is that what the board wants?”

The developer’s attorney, Thomas Kelso, objected to Sisler's criticisms on the basis that the student apartments were a​ permitted use in that zoning district.

Kelso, who serves as legal counsel for Middlesex County, has represented several other developers before city officials​ over the years.​

Another issue at the meeting was the ​perceived ​expedited pac​e with which the planning board approved the entire project. The plans for the high rise and the formal resolution approving the project were passed at the same meeting.

Under normal circumstances, the project would be passed at one planning board meeting and the formal resolution passed at the next meeting.

But with 90 New Street meant to mainly serve students, the project was operating on a very tight schedule, according to city planning director Glenn Patterson.

“You can’t open a student housing project in November, you need to have it done in August so you’re there for a September opening,” Patterson said. “They have a construction schedule that they’re trying to accomplish. ​If you don’t hit this schedule, you’re delayed a year.”

Originally, the project was supposed to go before the planning board at ​its November meeting, but since 90 New Street falls within the city’s redevelopment zone, it has to be approved by the city’s redevelopment agency, that being the New Brunswick Housing Authority.

Yet the housing authority canceled ​its​ October meeting​ because​ it lacked a quorum with two members attending a local town hall ​with then-gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy.

The project was passed by the housing authority at ​its November meeting, but at the cost of being pushed back a month on the planning board schedule.

“It is not something they normally do and not something recommended as a regular practice,” Patterson said, but as board attorney Aravind Aithal added, it is permitted under Municipal Land Use Law.

Editor Daniel J. Munoz, dmunoz@tapinto.net; twitter.com/DanielMunoz100