New Brunswick Planning Board Approves 45-Story Apartment Building On George Street

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — On Monday night, in a unanimous 8-0 vote, the New Brunswick Planning Board approved an application to build a 45-story apartment building on George Street.

If this apartment building gets built, it will be the tallest building in Middlesex County.

The high-rise apartment tower will be built at 259 George Street, in the vacant lot directly behind the Abundant Life Family Worship Church that is there currently.

Abundant Life church owns that land. There are no plans to knock the church down; it will remain. The church is actually a partner in building the new high-rise apartment tower. The redevelopment of this lot is being done by NB Plaza Owner LLC, which is a joint venture between Abundant Life Family Church and Ifany LLC, a private equity/real estate acquisitions company owned by Shimon Jacobowitz, TAP Into reported.

This will be a 45-story apartment building of 800 apartments, 160 of which will be affordable or low-income housing. The developer also plans to build a covered parking garage of 501 spaces. There will be retail shops on the ground floor of the apartment building.

However, many people are against the new high-rise. Many people spoke at Monday night's Planning Board meeting, with some residents saying the area is ecologically fragile and floods. Other New Brunswick residents said construction will disrupt their day-to-day lives and make walking on George Street very difficult. Another man said the developer has provided no land survey to the Planning Board, and presented an outdated traffic study.

Watch the March 9 New Brunswick Planning Board meeting here:

This massive high-rise apartment building already has the support of the New Brunswick Housing Authority. The proposed development is located in New Brunswick's Downtown Redevelopment District Renewal Area, which the city already zoned for redevelopment/new construction. And it needs no variances.

This comes at a time when cities and towns across New Jersey say they have to comply with increased affordable housing quotas from the state.

45-Story Apartment Building Proposed For New Brunswick (March 2)