Meridia Lafayette, the 115-unit complex at the corner of Main and Monroe streets, is expected to be completed by November with leasing possible as soon as the end of the year.
The update came during Engineer Jacqueline Dirmann’s report at Wednesday night’s Redevelopment Agency meeting.
The six-story Lafayette would be the third and largest project completed by Capodagli Property Company, after the 88-unit Meridia Grand on East Grand Avenue and the 108-unit Meridia Water’s Edge on Main Street. If the history of those two projects is any indication, the firm is likely to sell this new building within about two years. The Linden-based developer also is behind The Brownstones, a 487-unit rental complex planned at the former Wheatena factory at Elizabeth and West Grand avenues.
Lafayette includes 115 rental apartments, with parking for about the same on two levels below the units. There are two ground-floor retail spaces of about 1,000 square feet. The project got the green light from the Planning Board in 2012 and was approved for a 15-year Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) before breaking ground in 2014.
It originally was dubbed Meridia Chateau and proposed as 120 units in 2012. That came after years of inactivity at the site, after the previously approved project languished amid the housing market collapse. The Savoy had been planned as 36 two-bedroom condominiums with 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail but only managed to erect a few steel beams on the site before it ultimately went into foreclosure.
In a conversation after Wednesday night’s meeting, Executive Director Leonard Bier said new development projects are at about 98 percent leased.
We need a bakery,a star bucks or some kind of coffee shop. A grocery store, We need IRENES DINNER BACK or the Super Dinner back. Not a fancy restaurant but something down to earth. We have nothing but empty apartments.
Linda, I was told that this apartment building will have a bakery and a health spa in its storefront