FULFILLING LOFTY AMBITIONS
Mass transit is drawing new housing to Orange
BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Hoping
to take advantage of an emerging transit village in Orange, developers
are investing millions of dollars to construct new marketrate housing
in the city.
The new homes will be
built by three different developers near NJ Transit’s Midtown Direct
service to Manhattan.
Keith Miles, of
the city-based MidSouth Asset Holding, Jose Rosario, of Rosmar
Associates of Bloomfield, and Richard Groves, of Scott Groves
Development Group in West Orange, are individually ‘‘helping lead the
city’s transition from providing affordable to market rate housing,’’
according to Marty Mayes, the city’s director of planning and economic
development.
Those three small
development firms, along with seven large firms that collectively plan
to create more than 1,300 other residential units throughout the city,
prove investors have ‘‘a strong interest in the city, especially when
it comes to increasing home ownership,’’ Mayes said.
Nearly
75 percent of Orange’s residential properties are home to renters. The
city’s upgraded master plan calls for reversing the trend by promoting
home ownership and market-rate housing.
But home ownership won’t come cheap.
The
homes at Rosmar Estates, which will be built on 1.8 acres at 394
Highland Ave. in the Seven Oaks section of the city, will range from
$800,000 to $1.2 million.
The property
tax bill alone for new Rosmar Estates homeowners could range from
$22,240 to $33,360 under the city’s new tax rate of $2.78 of $100 per
$100 of assessed valuation. Properties in Orange have been assessed at
their full market value since a revaluation went into affect last
month.
Rosario said the five high-end
luxury homes will be constructed with so-called green technology that
is environmentally friendly and energy efficient.
The
smallest home to be built on the newly created subdivision will be a
four-bedroom residence, with 4 1 /2 baths, selling for about $800,000,
and the largest will be a five-bedroom residence, with a library, den
and six bathrooms, selling in the $1.2-million range.
‘‘I
believe there is a market here,’’ Rosario said of the five residences
that will be ready for occupancy, one each month, starting the end of
January. ‘‘The sale prices will be near cost, our cost of construction.
We’re using these homes for marketing, so we can sell other green
houses in other areas.’’
Each residence will comply with the Leadership in Energy and
E n v i r o n m e n t a l D e s i g n ( L E
E D ) green building rating system, a nationally accepted benchmark for
the design, construction and operation of high-performance structures,
and the air conditioning systems in each will have a ‘‘21’’ seas o n a
l e n e r g y e f f i c i e n c y r a t i n g (SEER), Rosario said.
In
Orange’s Valley residential area, Miles is constructing twounit,
loft-style, green-building condominiums. Each unit will feature thick
concrete-block walls, living room areas with 17-foot ceilings, three
bedrooms, at least two bathrooms, at least one walk-in closet, and some
oversized windows, the largest of which measures 64 by 84 inches.
The
benefits of this type of cement block construction include the creation
of a home that is soundproof, mildew resistant and energy efficient,
Miles said.
The first home being made
out of concrete — actually concrete poured into hollow Styrofoam cinder
block forms that have 20-foot long iron rods running through them — is
at 555 Tremont Ave. Each of the two loft units there will be about
2,000 square feet.
The small back yard in the rear of the planned four-story building will allow for four parking spaces.
To
provide alternative recreational space, however, Miles said he p l a n
s o n c o n s t r u c t i n g a 30-by-50-foot rooftop garden, complete
with sod grass, shrubbery and railing. Both units will access that
rooftop garden through an enclosed, rear staircase that also provides
access to the back yard, Miles said.
E
n e r g y - e f f i c i e n t a p p l i a n c e s , bamboo floors,
bathrooms with marble floors and tiled walls, recessed lighting and a
large Ushaped kitchen will be featured in each unit. Miles said he
expects to sell the lofts for about $550,000 each.
A
four-story model home is nearing completion at 530 Argyle Ave., just
west of Scotland Road and adjacent to the NJ Transit rail line. It’s
the same style as the Tremont Avenue building under construction, but
the model is 3,000 square feet, features 22-foot living room ceilings
and does not have concrete block walls.
All
of the other homes Miles plans to build, the remainder of which will be
on nearby Valley Road, are near mass transit.
‘‘We’re
banking on the homes being successfully sold because of the proximity
of NJ Transit’s Highland Avenue train station, (and) the Mountain
Station in (nearby) South Orange,’’ Miles said.
Groves,
of Scott-Groves Development, plans to pump $2.1 million into creating
13,528 square feet of space when his firm constructs Reock Plaza Lofts,
a project with two buildings on Reock Street, between South Center and
South Day streets.
One commercial
space, 2,200 square feet, and seven large residential lofts — averaging
from 1,470 square feet to 2,100 square feet, and featuring 18-foot
ceilings, solar power and green building heating technology — are
planned for that downtown location.
The Orange Planning Board approved the project last Wednesday.
Groves
said construction on the lofts — which are expected to sell somewhere
in the $300,000 to $400,000 range and take anywhere from nine to 10
months to complete — should begin in March.
Kevin
C. Dilworth covers East Orange and Orange. He can be reached at
kdilworth@starledger.com or (973) 392-4143 PHOTOS BY MITSU YASUKAWA Developer
Keith Miles shows the living room of a Soho-style loft, half of a
two-unit condominium built with green technology on Argyle Avenue in
Orange. Several private builders are constructing market-rate housing
in the city.
This new two-unit condominium on Argyle Avenue in Orange was built using insulated concrete forms.
MITSU YASUKAWA/THE STAR-LEDGER Keith
Miles demonstrates how to pour concrete into the Styrofoam installation
forms being used to construct condominiums in Orange.
