As high-profile apartment towers and mixed-used projects by Newark natives Shaquille O’Neal and Queen Latifah continue to attract headlines and win approvals, Mayor Ras J. Baraka and the city’s West Ward councilman hosted a virtual town hall meeting Thursday night to shine a light on lesser-known developers whose work on a more modest scale can stabilize and improve at-risk neighborhoods.
Last week, the City Council approved long-term tax abatements for large projects involving O’Neal and Latifah: his a 33-story apartment tower in Newark’s downtown section that, with 370 unites, is the city’s largest development; and hers a mixed-used project known as RISE that will include 76 apartments, a fitness center and retail space.
But in a Zoom meeting on the city’s Facebook page Thursday night, Baraka, West Ward Councilman Joseph McCallum and city development officials put the focus on a half-dozen builders with ongoing or planned projects within the West Ward Neighborhood Development Plan, which promotes residential and commercial growth in a 21-block area between South Orange Avenue and West Side Park.
In the four years since the plan was introduced by McCullum and later adopted by the council, the city has been condemning and acquiring blighted or abandoned West Side properties and selling them at low cost to qualified developers with plans to build what are mainly single- and multi-family dwellings.
The area is characterized by a high foreclosure rate and a disproportionate share of so-called underwater properties, that is, homes valued at less than what is still owed on their mortgage. While there are stable and well-maintained properties, others are in dire disrepair, with many blocks punctuated by vacant lots.
Those conditions make the neighborhood ripe for the kind of “infill developer,” as one of them, Narelle Myke of New Age Investment Properties LLC, described herself and other participants in Thursday’s town hall.
Myke, who was born into a Bronx family of electricians and carpenters, was one of the few participants not from Newark, and the only from outside New Jersey, though she lives in the state now.
“I really grew up watching family members fixing and building things,” said Myke, who so far has completed a brick single-family home, is working on a contemporary, and has plans for a trio of 3-family contemporaries under the development plan.
In brief remarks from his home at the start of the Zoom conference, Baraka welcomed the group of what he called, “Black and brown developers, women develops, that are out here, that are either trying to get into development or are there already as part of what we’re trying to do in a kind of holistic way in the city, and we’re starting here in the West Ward.”
“Some great people around here, and you don’t need to hear me, you need to hear their stories. They’re doing some outstanding things in the city,” Baraka said, before handing off to McCallum.
“I think it was about two years ago, almost exactly, that I met with these developers, and they had great ideas, and it’s good to see that they have persisted and persevered, and that they are ready to rock ‘n roll,” McCallum said. “There was some red tape, and things take a long time — we’re working on that also — so we wish these developers the very best of luck and we know that they’ll be successful.”
Developers of Newark's West Ward were introduced by Mayor Ras Baraka, lower right, and other officials during a Zoom meeting on the city's Facebook page Thursday night.Zoom via Facebook
The city’s deputy mayor for housing and economic development, Allison Ladd, played a video highlighting the neighborhood’s development opportunities and its existing assets, including West Side Park and West Side High School. Jerrah Crowder, who heads Newark’s affordable and sustainable housing office, said the city was seeking development, “in a comprehensive way, not necessarily what we’ve seen in the past 20 years or so,” by inviting “developers of varying levels, with tools to achieve those goals.”
He introduced Siree Morris, a Newark native and Rutgers civil engineering grad, who turned a job loss several years ago into an opportunity to strike out on his own as a developer. Morris’ main project is the most ambitious of the group, a five-story building on 16th Street, with a total of 33 units, including eight 1-bedroom apartments and 25 with 2 bedrooms. He also has plans for another 16 units on six lots he bought from the city.
“I’m Newark though and through, and I don’t plan on going anywhere,” Morris said.
Eugenia Hamlett told the group she previously had worked as a city contractor rehabilitating senior housing units before going into the development business with her husband. Hamlett, who credited New Jersey Community Capital with backing her, said her two current projects are a six-unit building and a two-family house, while her plans include 2- and 3-family houses and an 11-unit building on 16th Street.
Hamlett showed strikingly different before and after photos of one house she had rehabbed, and said she would be excited to live in a home she was developing, a sentiment Crowder said was rare among Newark developers up to now.
“I’m thrilled when I think of all the opportunities in the West Ward,” Hamlett said. “I truly believe that with us together, working as a group, we can truly make an impact on improving and modernizing the housing stock in the west ward.”
A developer from Orange, referred to and billed on his Zoom name tag only as “Benedict,” said he just closed on his first lots this week, and looked forward to building several 3-family houses on South 14th Street.
“This is my first time building from the ground up,” he said, noting he had done near-complete rehabilitation work in the city. “But with the several disabilities that some of these properties have had, it’s almost like building from the ground up.”
Anton Campbell said he and his development partner began as landlords, but were eager to turn their eight lots in the development area into 3-family homes with open floor plans, a housing trend he said was uncommon for the West Ward. “We really appreciate the opportunity,” he said.
Newark native Jamilah Muhammad of Rising Plains LLC said she started as a real estate agent at age 18 before eventually doing development projects in Newark, Irvington and Jersey City. Her plans include a 2- and 3-family houses and a 20-unit project that will include 3-bedroom apartments with their own washer and dryer. She invited other women to get into the development field.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said. “Come to the meetings. Ask a lot of questions.”
Several of the 242 people Crowder said had tuned into the livestream asked questions of their own.
Would the units be affordable?
Yes, said Hamlett, with her 2-bedrooms at about $1,400 for residents making half the areas’ median income. Morris added that renters approaching him directly would not pay any fees.
Were the developers hiring?
Maybe, Hamlett said. “We’re always looking for good framers.”
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com.