Downtown’s newest residential property located at 999 Broad Street officially opened today. The five-story, mixed-use building is managed by RPM Development Group and adds 87 apartment units, 47 of which are for low- and moderate-income households, plus 6,500 square feet of retail to the neighborhood. Subsidized monthly rents start at $604 for a 1-bedroom unit and run up to $1,292 for 3-bedrooms.
What was formerly an abandoned and unsightly postal service facility on the corner of Broad and West Kinney Streets, is now a LEED Platinum-certified residence offering a state-of-the-art fitness center, private on-site parking, laundry facilities, a community room and a second-floor garden terrace. In the coming weeks, a preschool run and managed by the state’s oldest, African-American, social-service agency, the Leaguers, will join 999 Broad as the primary, ground-floor tenant.
“Transforming previously abandoned facilities into state-of-the-art, affordable housing developments is what our work toward social-economic justice is all about,” said Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka. “We are working with developers like RPM, the county and the state to make sure that all of our residents have access to environmentally safe, ecologically friendly and economically priced places to live.”
The $21 million in financing for 999 Broad was made possible by the federal, 4 percent, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program, financial contributions from the New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency, TD Bank, the County of Essex Division of Housing and Community Development and the City of Newark, with approximately $1.3 million in contribution from the City’s HOME Program.
RPM, in their long tradition of subcontracting local, women and minority-owned firms, continued their diverse supplier practices on this project. “The projects that have the greatest economic impact are those that allow local residents and businesses to participate in the development of their neighborhoods,” said Edward Martoglio, President of RPM Development Group. “We are pleased to have been able to hire so many residents and contractors from the City of Newark in the construction of 999 Broad.”
Today’s ribbon-cutting ceremony caps the final phase of a larger project that also includes 60 Nevada Street, a 75-unit, 100-percent-affordable, residential development completed last spring and located directly behind 999 Broad. Both buildings are at full-occupancy; the residents of 999 Broad completed their move-ins last week.
