Daewoo Engineering & Construction is jumping into the New Jersey housing game with a massive new project in Palisades Park: an 18-story, 540-unit apartment tower with ground-floor retail. Company materials put the price tag at roughly $291 million, with a groundbreaking targeted for 2028 and completion and operation in 2031, after which the partners plan to sell the building. The project will run through Daewoo’s U.S. investment arm in partnership with a New York-area developer.
Deal details and timeline
According to a company press release, Daewoo finalized its investment decision on June 30 and plans to have its U.S. investment vehicle, DUSAI, co-develop the site with New York-area firm Tamares. The partners expect to sign a joint-venture agreement and close on the land by the end of July, then chase remaining permits and investor commitments ahead of a 2028 start. Daewoo pegs the construction period at about 32 months and is pitching the project as a key foothold for broader North American development work, as reported by Daewoo E&C.
The site and the plan
The borough’s adopted redevelopment plan covers about 2.17 acres between West Ruby Avenue and Fairview Street (Block 504, Lots 1–5 and 10) and calls for a mixed-use tower that could rise up to 20 stories with as many as 540 rental units. The plan requires a 20 percent affordable housing set-aside, which works out to roughly 108 units, anticipates around 9,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail, and lays out design standards, parking requirements and streetscape upgrades. Those details appear in the formal redevelopment document for the 121–131 West Ruby/20–40 Fairview site, according to the Borough of Palisades Park.
Why developers are betting on Palisades Park
Company materials and trade coverage point to a couple of big selling points. The site sits about a 30-minute drive from Midtown Manhattan and hugs Bergen County’s dense Korean-language commercial strip, which developers say could appeal both to commuting professionals and to residents who want easy access to Korean shops and restaurants. Korean business press reports put the total project cost at about $291 million and frame the move as part of Daewoo’s effort to reestablish a U.S. development platform. As BusinessKorea notes, Daewoo is banking on local demand and the maturity of East Coast financing markets to make the numbers work.
What to watch next
Near term, the big checkpoints are the joint-venture agreement and land closing expected at the end of July, followed by local permitting and investor recruitment ahead of the 2028 groundbreaking. Daewoo has cast the Palisades Park build as its first North American housing development in roughly twenty years and says it plans to pair its overseas development experience with local partners to scale projects in the United States and Texas. Korean media also point out that the company is pushing forward on a separate mixed-use project in Prosper, Texas later this year, as summarized by ChosunBiz.
Local approvals and community requirements
Before any shovels hit the ground, the redevelopment will have to run the usual municipal gauntlet and comply with the borough’s court-ordered fair-share housing obligations. Local planning board materials and Zoning Board of Adjustment minutes describe the settlements and builder’s-remedy processes that shaped what can be built on the site. Those records outline public hearings, ordinance steps and affordable housing commitments that will frame the developer’s next round of filings. The timelines and conditions that will steer approvals are detailed in ZBA records published by Palisades Park.
