Brick Boulevard Apartment Complex Construction Underway

Work is moving along on a project that will result in a 120-unit apartment complex on Brick Boulevard, but contrary to whispers and rumors around town, the complex is not slated for low-income housing.

The Boulevard At Brick, described during testimony before the Brick Township Board of Adjustment as “upscale” apartments, is moving “full speed ahead,” said John Jackson, the Brick Township attorney for the property owner, 135 Brick Boulevard LLC.

“This is not a Mount Laurel job,” Jackson said in a phone interview with the Patch, referring to a term often applied to an affordable housing community. The apartments in the gated complex will have upscale amenities, such as granite countertops, hardwood floors, a 5,000-square-foot clubhouse and 3,000-square-foot pool, officials have said.

The rumors that it would be affordable housing stemmed from a change in the complex’s status. Originally proposed and approved as an age-restricted senior citizen community, a lawsuit threatened by the affordable housing group Fair Share Housing Center, of Cherry Hill, over a deed restriction barring Section 8 recipients from being accepted as tenants forced the developer to withdraw that restriction.

Section 8 refers to a federal program where people who meet certain income requirements are given vouchers to rent apartments or houses. At the hearing where the deed restriction was removed, the zoning board attorney, Ronald D. Cucchiaro, said an apartment building owner cannot restrict someone from paying for their apartment with such funding. Jackson said at the time the rents in the proposed complex will be sufficiently high enough that Section 8 tenants most likely would not seek it out. A one-bedroom apartment would rent for approximately $1,400 per month, he said.

“Individuals apply for the housing assistance, they get approved for the housing assistance and they have to seek a facility that they can afford,” said Tara Paxton, the township’s assistant planner, said at the meeting where the deed restriction was removed.

Jackson earlier this month said Section 8 funding would be well below the market rate for the apartments.

“It just would not make sense for someone who has a market-rate facility” to accept less than that from tenants, he said.

The demographic the complex is targeting is people who have an income of $50,000 or more, Jackson said.

The developer also will pay $440,000 to avoid a state-mandated 20 percent affordable housing set-aside, with the money going to a township trust fund,

“It’ll be nice to have a nice apartment complex in Brick” for those who want something upscale but don’t want the hassle of yard work and other property maintenance, Jackson said.