By Patricia Alex, Kathleen Lynn | Appears in the December 2024 issue
Giuliano Correia, a flight attendant based in Newark, knows about the city’s gritty reputation. But, in need of affordable rent and a speedy commute, he moved into the Urby, a luxury building downtown. He and a roommate pay a total of $3,100 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.
“It takes me 13 minutes on the bus to get to the airport. That’s insane,” says Correia, 46, who is also a freelance photographer. He often treks into New York City, less than half an hour from Newark Penn Station. “I’m in Newark because of its connectivity and affordability,” he says.
Developers are spotting the same advantages. After decades of being stigmatized and shut out of redevelopment trends, the corridor along the train line in eastern Essex County is seeing a surge in luxury-apartment construction.
More than 16,000 new units are either complete, under construction, or proposed for Essex County. Developers are betting that residents priced out of New York City and New Jersey’s Hudson River waterfront will be willing to move west. Local leaders say the new housing also addresses an existing demand within these cities.
“We’ve been predicting for a long time that Newark was the next big thing to happen, and it’s happening,” says Jeffrey Otteau, a Matawan-based real estate economist who tracks markets nationwide. He says the same trends apply to Orange and East Orange.
The redevelopment has been buoyed by tax breaks and public spending, including the multimillion-dollar renovations of train stations in all three cities. “If you look at even 10 years ago, there was very little major development going on, aside from public projects,” says David Barry, founder and CEO of Urby, which has nationwide properties, including the $90 million, 250-unit adaptive reuse of the 1920s Newark structure first built as a parking garage. “Over the last five to eight years, there’s much more private capital coming in.”
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