A stretch of Esterbrook Avenue properties will be studied to determine if they qualify for redevelopment.

Combined, the five properties comprise less than 1 acre (assessed value/2021 property taxes in parentheses):

• Block 151, Lot 7 is a narrow, city-owned right of way (ROW) that runs from Esterbrook to Bryant Street.
• Bock 151, Lot 20, 1436 Esterbrook Ave. ($133,000/$9,210)
• Block 151, Lot 21, 1430 Esterbrook Ave. ($151,700/$10,505)
• Block 151, Lot 22, 1416 Esterbrook Ave. ($332,100/$23,330)
• Block 151, Lot 23, 1410 Esterbrook Ave. ($176,200/$12,202)

The properties are across the street from the Jack and Margaret Myers Senior Residence, a four-story, 51-unit development that was constructed in 2013 on the site of the former St. Mary’s convent building.

They’re also adjacent to two houses of worship: Zion Lutheran at the corner of Elm and Esterbook avenues and Iglesia la luz del Mundo which abuts part of the properties and the ROW but fronts Bryant Street. There’s also the First Baptist Church on the opposite corner of Elm and Esterbrook.

The four residential properties paid property taxes of about $55,250 in 2020, based on a total assessment of $797,000. The largest of the properties is the one that most recently sold, according to property records: Block 151, Lot 22/1416 Esterbrook Ave. sold for $825,000 in October 2018 to a Jersey City-based LLC called Esterbrook Estates. It’s the only one classified as an apartment; the others are classified as residential. At some point in the 1990s, as I understand it, the 4,000-square-foot building served as a boarding house. Lot 21/1430 Esterbrook Ave., has been vacant, or at least in disrepair, for  probably a decade or more.

City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Robert Landolfi said the properties are not inhabited and have been acquired by a developer. “Given that there’s one owner, he thinks it makes sense to go through the redevelopment process. To get it on the fast track, he’d very much like to submit a development scheme and get it rolling,” Landolfi said during a telephone interview on Monday.

“We see it as a transitional piece, a good opportunity to really transition from those other residential neighborhoods to downtown,” he said. “We know what we’d like to see there, residential, but I think you do it in concert with the developer. I think it’s going to be multi-family but probably not as dense as downtown buildings,” Landolfi said, something more like the senior housing across the street.

Once the Planning Board reviews the redevelopment study, it must decide whether to recommend the declaration of a redevelopment area to City Council, which then would introduce an ordinance that come up for a public hearing. If all goes smoothly, Landolfi was confident that the study and approvals could be completed by summer.