What’s Coming Down the Pike for East Brunswick? The Housing Projects Beyond the Ones Everyone Knows

Vermella, District Walk and Brunswick Square get most of the attention. But other apartments, townhomes, single-family houses and senior-living units are already approved, under construction or allowed by zoning. Here’s where each project stands, and which have actually started.

Most East Brunswick residents know about Vermella on Route 18, the District Walk townhomes, Legacy Place on Tices Lane and the proposed redevelopment of Brunswick Square.

Those aren’t the only residential projects in the pipeline.

Every project below carries a status label, and the labels matter. A property zoned for up to 182 units is not the same as 182 units on the way. What each label means is explained further down.

Here’s what may still be coming down the pike.

Approved, not built

A township board has approved a specific plan for each of these. None has been built.

Hidden Oak Woods: 275 apartments, approved in 2020

Status: APPROVED, NOT BUILT

• Where: a roughly 41-acre site between Harts Lane and Tices Lane, reached from Eagle Road and Mill Brook Court. About 13 of those acres are conservation easements, wetlands or floodplain.
• What: 275 rental apartments in seven four-story buildings.
• Affordable: 55, or 20%, as family rentals.
• Developer: Hidden Oak Woods LLC, an affiliate of Alfieri LLC.

The approval took years and a court case:

• 2016: The site was part of the court settlement that set the township’s affordable-housing obligation, and it was rezoned for this project.
• December 2017: The developer filed plans.
• February 2019: The Planning Board denied them.
• February 2020: After the developer sued, a Superior Court judge overturned the denial and sent the application back to the board to approve with reasonable conditions.
• May and June 2020: The board adopted the approval under the court’s order, then amended it.
• July 2021: The state Appellate Division upheld the decision overturning the denial.

Where it stands now:

• The land has been cleared. A development list in February 2023 school board materials noted, “Tree permit has been approved and land cleared.”
• No construction found. We found no record that construction of any building has begun.
• The township says the approvals still stand. In the housing plan it filed in court in March 2026, the township stated that “the prior settlement agreement and court orders remain valid and the subject property remains suitable for the approved inclusionary development as approved.”

Before construction can start, several steps remain:

• a state sewer approval
• a $500,000 escrow the developer must post for two traffic signals on Tices Lane, required before any construction permit can be issued
• building permits

We found no Planning Board extension of the approval in records since 2022. The public records we reviewed don’t show when, or whether, construction will begin.

Golden Oak Estates: 12 houses on Riva Avenue

Status: APPROVED, NOT BUILT

• Where: 476 Riva Avenue.
• What: 12 single-family houses, plus a lot for a stormwater basin, with a homeowners association. None affordable.
• Approved: by the Planning Board, with conditions, on May 26, 2026. The formal resolution was adopted Aug. 12.

Vermella Phase II: about 240 more apartments

Status: APPROVED, NOT BUILT

This is a second Vermella apartment building, in addition to the one already open on Route 18.

• What: 240 rental apartments with a parking garage. The architect’s plan showed 8 studios, 128 one-bedroom, 86 two-bedroom and 18 three-bedroom apartments.
• Affordable: 15.
• Approved: by the Planning Board on Aug. 28, 2024.
• Timing: We found no record that construction has begun. The township’s amended agreement with the developer, adopted in November 2025, sets out this schedule:
  • the first building is to be finished by the end of 2026
  • work on this second building is to start six months after that
  • the second building is to be finished by Dec. 31, 2028
• Developer: EB Development Urban Renewal LLC.

Why only 15 affordable apartments? The 2016 court settlement that set East Brunswick’s affordable-housing obligation required 115 affordable units across the Route 18 redevelopment area. Legacy Place is providing 100 of them and Vermella the other 15, as Mayor Brad Cohen explained at the August 2024 hearing.

District Walk: about 115 more townhomes approved

Status: first lot UNDER CONSTRUCTION; remaining lots APPROVED, NOT BUILT

• What: for-sale stacked townhomes, none of them affordable. Testimony described an even split between two-bedroom and optional three-bedroom townhomes.
• The first lot: 104 townhomes. The builder, a Pulte company, bought that lot in November 2025, and construction is under way.
• The other two lots: about 115 more townhomes, approved but not built. We found no record that those lots have been sold to a builder.

Township records differ by one unit on the overall size. The Planning Board approved 218 townhomes; the township’s financial agreement with the developer lists 219. The records we reviewed don’t explain the difference, so the remaining count is 114 or 115, depending on which document is used.

Rezoned, no application

These properties are already zoned for housing, and in most cases a developer could go straight to the Planning Board without any further zoning change.

But no one has filed plans for any of them. The numbers below are the most the zoning would allow. None is a project anyone has proposed.

Kate Keller, the township’s planner for affordable housing, told the Planning Board in February that for the older sites, “No new rezoning … is needed. They have already been rezoned.”

Kelemen tract: up to 182 units at 600 Rues Lane

Status: REZONED, NO APPLICATION

• Where: 600 Rues Lane, at Cranbury Road. 15.22 acres.
• Zoning: a “Town Green” planned development, adopted in 2017, at 12 units per acre, allowing up to 182 units.
• Housing type: the zoning allows a mix of single-family houses, townhouses and apartments, up to three stories or 35 feet. It does not establish how many of each, so there is no breakdown.
• Affordable: 20%, or 36 units at the maximum.
• Applications: none. The township’s housing plan says there are “no development approvals in place,” and nothing appears in Planning Board or Zoning Board records since 2022.
• Today: the land is assessed as farmland and held by trustees, according to county tax records. No developer is named in any record we found.

A February 2026 draft of the township’s housing plan said this zoning was “proposed to be amended” to 14 units per acre. That language is not in the version filed in court in March, and no ordinance made the change. The limit is still 12 units per acre.

Bailes tract: up to 102 units on Cranbury Road

Status: REZONED, NO APPLICATION

• Where: 491–497 Cranbury Road, five lots totaling 11.42 acres.
• Zoning: a “Village Green II” planned development, adopted in 2017, at 9 units per acre, allowing up to 102 units.
• Housing type: the zoning allows a mix of single-family houses, townhouses and apartments, up to three stories or 35 feet. It does not establish how many of each.
• Affordable: up to 20 units.
• Ownership: three separate owners, according to county records, including a company named Bailes Cranbury Road Farm LLC. The tract includes an existing commercial property and a house.
• Applications: none.

Zielinski tract: up to 87 units on Cranbury Road

Status: REZONED, NO APPLICATION

• Where: Cranbury Road, 9.96 acres.
• Zoning: Village Green II, adopted in 2017, allowing up to 87 units under the township’s plan.
• Housing type: a mix of single-family houses, townhouses and apartments is allowed. The zoning does not establish how many of each.
• Affordable: up to 17 units.
• Today: assessed as farmland and owned by a Zielinski family partnership, according to county records.
• Applications: none.

Together, the Kelemen, Bailes and Zielinski tracts could hold up to 371 units under current zoning. All three have been zoned that way since 2017, and all three remain in the township’s current housing plan.

Arisa II: up to 250 apartments off Main Street

Status: REZONED, NO APPLICATION

• Where: the land behind the existing Arisa apartments at 85 Main Street.
• Zoning: rezoned by the Township Council on March 9, 2026 (Ordinance 26-05), allowing up to 250 new apartments.
• Housing type: multifamily rental buildings up to four stories, set back at least 300 feet from Main Street.
• Affordable: 43.
• Applications: none.

What stands in the way: the zoning requires two new at-grade crossings over the Conrail freight line, approved by Conrail and/or the state Department of Transportation. Keller told the Planning Board that the developers “are not able to develop this property until they can get that final approval from Conrail.”

660 Cranbury Road: up to about 40 townhouses

Status: REZONED, NO APPLICATION

• Where: 660 Cranbury Road, about 3.4 acres next to the CareOne assisted-living facility. A single-family house sits on the property now.
• Zoning: rezoned March 9, 2026 (Ordinance 26-07), for townhouses at up to 12 units per acre. That works out to about 40 townhouses, up to three stories.
• Affordable: about 8.
• Applications: none. Keller told the Planning Board there is “a concept plan that’s not been finalized.”
• What’s left: Planning Board site-plan approval. No further zoning vote is needed.

Sixth Street: up to 30 affordable townhomes on township land

Status: REZONED, NO APPLICATION

• Where: 13.1 acres at Sixth Street and Davison Avenue, a former bus depot the township owns.
• Zoning: rezoned March 9, 2026 (Ordinance 26-06), for up to 30 townhouses or stacked townhouses. The township’s plan counts 28.
• Affordable: all of them, as family housing for low- and moderate-income households.
• Developer: none.
  • The housing plan lists the township’s development partner as “to be determined.”
  • It says a construction timetable “will be developed.”
  • We found no request for proposals for the site on the township’s bids page.
• Money: the township’s affordable-housing trust fund held about $3.0 million in February.
  • Its spending plan lists a contribution to a fully affordable development, alongside the donated Sixth Street land, but assigns no dollar amount.
  • The resolution adopting that spending plan does not release any money.

Proposed: Brunswick Square

Status: PROPOSED

• What: the proposed redevelopment plan would allow up to 250 residential units on the former Macy’s and Olive Garden parcels. The plan does not specify the type of building.
• Affordable: at least 20%, or at least 50 if all 250 are built.
• Height: up to four stories and 55 feet.
• Unit mix: at least half of the market-rate units would have to be studios or one-bedrooms, with no market-rate three-bedrooms.

Where it stands: The Township Council introduced Ordinance 26-25 on Sept. 14 and voted to send the redevelopment plan to the Planning Board for review. Both actions passed 5-0. The ordinance has not been finally adopted; its public hearing and final Council vote are scheduled for Sept. 28.

The 250 units are a maximum allowed under the proposed redevelopment plan, not an approved building count. Officials said the site layout shown so far is conceptual. No redeveloper has been designated, no redevelopment agreement has been approved and no PILOT agreement has been approved.

Even if the Council adopts the redevelopment plan, additional steps would remain before housing could be built, including designation of a redeveloper, a redevelopment agreement and Planning Board site-plan approval.

Senior and assisted living

These are licensed care facilities, measured in both units and beds, and they are counted separately from apartments and townhomes.

Brightview Senior Living: 175 units at 509 Cranbury Road

Status: UNDER CONSTRUCTION

• What: 175 units with 209 beds, covering independent living, assisted living and memory care, in a four-story building.
• Approved: by the Planning Board on Dec. 11, 2024, under a redevelopment plan the township adopted for the site in 2023.
• Construction: the township’s housing plan, revised in February 2026, says “site work has commenced.”
• Affordable housing: 10 beds are set aside for Medicaid residents and count toward the township’s affordable-housing obligation.

Benchmark at East Brunswick: 87 units at 566 Ryders Lane

Status: UNDER CONSTRUCTION (as reported by trade publications)

• What: 87 units, 62 assisted living and 25 memory care, with 100 licensed beds, in a three-story building.
• Approved: by the Zoning Board in December 2022 and amended in July 2025. A one-year extension was granted in February 2026.
• Construction: two trade publications, Jersey Digs and EFA Magazine, reported in June 2026 that construction had started. We did not find a construction update in township records.
• Affordable housing: 10 Medicaid beds count toward the township’s obligation.

Older or uncertain projects still worth knowing about

These appear in township records, but their current status isn’t clear. None should be read as coming soon.

• Arisa’s 70 townhomes (STATUS UNCLEAR). A 2019 township letter listed 70 approved townhomes at Arisa, none affordable, alongside the 63 apartments that were built. The townhomes never were. Whether that approval still stands, and how it relates to the 2026 rezoning of the land behind Arisa, isn’t addressed in the records we reviewed.
• Clark Farm, 12 single-family houses (STATUS UNCLEAR). Near Stage Coach Run and Lanterns Lane. Approved in 2008, according to a February 2023 development list, which noted “nothing has been constructed due to very high water table.”
• Dutch Road, 3 single-family houses (STATUS UNCLEAR). Listed as approved but not started on the same 2023 list.
• 1 Race Track Road, 3 additional apartments (STATUS UNCLEAR). A 2023 Zoning Board application to convert offices into apartments, taking the building from five units to eight. It was heard in February 2023 and carried to a later date. We found no decision.
• Room left in the Route 18 plan (PLANNING-DOCUMENT CAPACITY ONLY). The redevelopment plan covering the Vermella area allows up to 950 residential units, and the phases approved so far total about 764.
  • That leaves room on paper for about 186 more. That figure is Eyes on EB’s arithmetic, not a township number.
  • No one has proposed them.
  • At a December 2024 Planning Board meeting, Mayor Cohen said of the remaining properties, “The plans aren’t on those properties to put residential units.”

The ones you’ve probably heard about

Briefly, for context:

• Vermella’s first apartment building on Route 18, about 306 apartments, is open and leasing. Eyes on EB has not independently confirmed current occupancy.
• District Walk’s first 104 stacked townhomes are under construction. More District Walk townhomes are approved; see above.
• Legacy Place on Tices Lane, 520 apartments and townhomes, is “almost complete,” its developer told the Redevelopment Agency in June.
• Brunswick Square’s proposed redevelopment plan would allow up to 250 residential units. The Council introduced it Sept. 14, but it has not been finally adopted; details above.

What these categories actually mean

• OPEN AND LEASING: the building is finished enough to rent.
• UNDER CONSTRUCTION: work has started. Buildings still need occupancy approvals before anyone moves in.
• APPROVED, NOT BUILT: a township board approved a specific plan, meaning how many units, what buildings and where.
  • Approvals come with conditions, outside permits are often still needed, and approvals can lapse.
  • An approval is permission to build, not a promise that anyone will.
• REZONED, NO APPLICATION: the zoning allows housing, but no one has asked to build it. “Rezoned for up to 182 units” means 182 is the ceiling. It is not an approved project and not a count of what will be built. A developer would still need Planning Board approval, and the final number could be lower.
• PROPOSED: a plan has been put forward but not adopted. It can still change, or fail.
• PLANNING-DOCUMENT CAPACITY ONLY: room for housing exists on paper, with no project attached.
• STATUS UNCLEAR: the public record doesn’t show where things stand.

The pipeline, by status and housing type

This table leaves out Vermella’s first building, which is open and leasing, and Legacy Place, which its developer described in June as almost complete.

Affordable units, by status:

• UNDER CONSTRUCTION: none in District Walk; 20 Medicaid beds in the two senior facilities.
• APPROVED, NOT BUILT: 70, of which 55 are at Hidden Oak Woods and 15 at Vermella Phase II.
• REZONED, NO APPLICATION: up to about 154.
• PROPOSED: at least 50 at Brunswick Square.

Bottom line

The projects residents can see going up are only part of the picture.

• Approved and able to move toward construction: Vermella’s second apartment building, the rest of District Walk, Hidden Oak Woods and Golden Oak Estates. Each still needs permits, and some need outside approvals.
• Being built: District Walk’s first 104 townhomes and two senior-living facilities.
• Zoned only, with no application: six properties, including three Cranbury Road–area tracts rezoned in 2017. Nothing will be built on them unless someone files plans and wins approval.
• Proposed: Brunswick Square, still awaiting final Council adoption.

Some of these projects may never be built. Some could change size along the way.

What the records show is that East Brunswick has considerably more residential capacity in the pipeline than what residents can currently see under construction.

Eyes on EB will update this story as applications are filed and approvals change.

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How we did this: This story draws on public records, including:

• East Brunswick’s 2016 affordable-housing court settlement
• the township’s Housing Element and Fair Share Plans, including the amended plan filed in Superior Court in March 2026
• township ordinances and resolutions, and the township code as published on eCode360
• Planning Board and Zoning Board agendas, minutes, resolutions and certified transcripts from 2022 through September 2026
• Redevelopment Agency and Township Council minutes, agenda packets and meeting video
• redevelopment and financial agreements
• a 2021 Appellate Division decision
• Middlesex County property records
• a February 2023 development list in Board of Education materials

We followed a few rules throughout:

• Where only outside publications report a project’s construction status, we say so.
• Unit counts for rezoned properties are the most the zoning allows, not approved projects.
• Where documents disagree, we give both figures.