TAY Investments welcomed members of its project team on Thursday, March 2, to break ground on a 116-unit luxury apartment building in East Orange, known as Hue Soul.
By Joshua Burd
A developer has broken ground on a project that will bring 116 luxury apartments to a site just north of Interstate 280 in East Orange, adding to the city’s fast-growing stock of rental units.
The firm, TAY Investments, is moving ahead after recently closing on the parcel at the corner of Burnet Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, where plans call for a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom homes. The six-story building is also slated to include 8,200 square feet of retail space, resident amenities and more than 120 parking spaces, adding to the appeal of a site that is adjacent to the highway but also within three blocks of two NJ Transit stations.
The Hackensack-based firm expects to complete the project around spring 2025, bringing new life to the former site of a soul food restaurant.
“We hope that people will see the opportunity to have luxurious accommodations with reasonable pricing, in an area that you can park your car, take the train and get to anywhere that you want,” said Yuval Shram, CEO of TAY Investments. “And we’re hoping to attract good retailers to the ground level that will accommodate both the tenants inside as well as the outside community.”
Known as Hue Soul, the project comes with thousands of other apartments under construction or in development in the Essex County city, which figures to serve as a lower-cost alternative to the Gold Coast while benefiting from its proximity to Newark, Jersey City and Manhattan. Shram, whose firm is receiving a tax abatement for the project, said the municipality has been “very accommodating” and open-minded when it comes to development.
That was evident by the city’s willingness to amend a plan that was approved prior to TAY Investments’ acquisition of the site — namely, by adding a floor to the project to create a more seamless parking facility.
“This site was fully designed and approved, and when Yuval came and went under contract, he tweaked the design,” said Jeremy Neuer, a senior managing director with JLL, who brokered the sale of the parcel while a member of CBRE. “So that’s how he, as a thoughtful developer, said ‘This is what makes sense, this is what’s going to meet the market. Let me take my time.’ It’s like measure twice, cut once.”
He later added: “If the town wasn’t willing to work with him, the deal never would have closed.”
Hue Soul will include some 2,000 square feet of amenity space, including a fitness center, a patio floor and large, luxurious lobby, among others, Shram said.
“At the end of the day, there’s a good population here who wants to see new developments and new units that are on the luxurious side,” he said. “And that’s what we intend to bring here.”
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