AvalonBay Communities hosted a ribbon-cutting event on June 14 for its new 374-unit luxury apartment property in Somerville, drawing more than 130 attendees, including local and county officials and company executives and associates. — Courtesy: AvalonBay Communities Inc.
By Joshua Burd
AvalonBay Communities has unveiled its new 374-unit luxury apartment property in Somerville, where it’s anchoring a master-planned project adjacent to the borough’s train station.
Known as Avalon Somerville Station, the project at 22 Robeson St. is now open after breaking ground some two years ago about a half-mile from Route 206. The site is also 150 feet from Division Street, a thoroughfare in downtown Somerville, providing a key perk that the developer highlighted as part of a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“AvalonBay is extremely pleased to commemorate the grand opening of our newest community in New Jersey, and grateful for the warm welcome we’ve received here in Somerville,” said Ron Ladell, a senior vice president with AvalonBay and the company’s top executive in New Jersey. “AvalonBay prides itself on the quality of our communities, and we look forward to providing Avalon Somerville Station residents with a truly remarkable living experience, combining best-in-class amenities with a convenient location.”
Renters at the property have access to a host of on-site amenities, including work suites operated by Second Space. Available to both residents and non-residents, the offering includes private, lockable work suites with the benefit of an office environment and features such as a kitchenette and on-demand printing.
Other amenities include a high-end fitness center, a club room, a pet spa and a roof deck, according to a news release. The property also has several courtyards with both active and passive areas such as a pool deck, grills and fire pits.
AvalonBay showed off those spaces and more during the June 14 ribbon-cutting event, which drew more than 130 attendees, including local and county officials and company executives and associates.
“Avalon Somerville Station is a superb addition to the borough of Somerville,” Mayor Dennis Sullivan said. “We are pleased to have this incredibly well-located first-in-class community in Somerville and look forward to the economic activity that will be generated by it. AvalonBay is well known for its outstanding development, construction and management expertise and we are very pleased to have them as a community partner.”
AvalonBay acquired the 15-acre development site in late 2020 from Somerset Development, the master developer of a larger project known as Somerville Station. The overall redevelopment, which is more than a decade in the making, is transforming part of an 80-acre former landfill site bounded by NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley line, South Bridge Street and Route 206, with other uses that will include 156 townhomes by PulteGroup, a new civic center, street-level retail, a public plaza and NJ Transit parking facilities.
It’s also part of the largest mixed-use development ever approved by Somerville, benefiting from its immediate access to NJ Transit’s Raritan Valley Line, which gets commuters to New York Penn Station in about 90 minutes and Newark Penn Station in about 60 minutes. Residents of the Avalon property and nearby homes are also a short ride to Bridgewater Commons and the Route 22 retail corridor.
