Plainfield's Planning Board has approved site plans for a five-story, 98-unit apartment building on a 1.3-acre stretch of New Jersey Route 28, clearing the way for a project that will wrap around an existing Dunkin' Donuts and a single-family home while topping its roof with three pickleball courts and a lounge. The board signed off on the plan on August 6, along with a signage variance and design waivers for dwelling-unit storage and drive-aisle width.
The approval, first reported by Jersey Digs, covers an L-shaped assemblage at 1314-20 West Front Street and 21-25 Clinton Avenue near the western edge of Plainfield, close to Green Brook Park and not far from U.S. Route 22. The site sits just a few blocks from Dunellen and its train station, and the project will replace a commercial building and a two-story home with 166,749 square feet of new construction, according to the outlet's reporting. 1314 West Front Street Urban Renewal LLC submitted the redevelopment application and had already sought a redeveloper designation for the lots back in September 2025.
What's Inside the Building
The building will hold 60 one-bedroom apartments, 36 two-bedroom units and two studios, per the same report. Ground-floor space totaling 4,193 square feet is planned for a restaurant, and the project includes 129 parking spaces to serve residents and visitors.
Amenities are spread across roughly 13,000 square feet and include a fitness center, a dog wash, bicycle storage, a business center, a ground-level amenity deck and a resident clubroom with a communal kitchen, the report notes. The rooftop itself will feature three pickleball courts, a lounge and varied seating, with part of that rooftop space accessible to patrons of the ground-floor restaurant as well as residents.
The Architect Behind the Design
Brian Taylor, president of South Plainfield-based Taylor Architecture & Design, is the lead architect on the project. Taylor's firm previously served as lead architect on Cheung Development Group's 367-unit Bella Plainfield development at 308 West 2nd Street, and the firm is also the lead architect for a separate 55-unit mixed-use project at 1112 North Avenue, next to the Netherwood train station. Construction on the Route 28 project could begin as early as spring 2027 and may take more than a year and a half to complete, the report states.
How the City Financed the Deal
The financial framework behind the project traces back to March 2025, when the Plainfield City Council voted 6-1 on first reading to pass Ordinance MC 2025-10, granting a financial agreement and tax exemption to 1314 West Front Street Urban Renewal LLC for the relevant lots, according to the Municipal Council of the City of Plainfield. The council later approved Resolution R 350-25 in September 2025, authorizing a first amendment to the redevelopment agreement governing the site. The developer has secured a 30-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, per Jersey Digs' reporting.
Under New Jersey's Long-Term Tax Exemption Law, standard PILOT agreements let municipalities keep 95% of annual service charges locally while sending 5% to the county, bypassing the standard tax distribution to local school districts, according to the Borough of Fanwood. Separately, statutory rules require redevelopers receiving these long-term exemptions to incorporate as special-purpose Urban Renewal Entities, per the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
Part of a Broader Transit-Village Push
The project's location plugs into a state planning framework dating back more than a decade. The New Jersey Department of Transportation designated Plainfield an official Transit Village in March 2014, giving the city priority access to state grants and planning support for clustering multi-family housing along its rail corridors, a status that has helped spur more than a dozen downtown and corridor redevelopments since then. NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line offers direct off-peak one-seat train service to Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station from nearby Plainfield and Dunellen stations. State planning materials also discuss development near transit centers, according to the New Jersey Transit-Friendly Planning Newsletter.
City economic reports cited by the Mapp for Mayor Campaign Office show Plainfield generated more than $1 billion in total investment commitments between 2021 and 2025, part of a pipeline of more than 6,000 new housing units across the city. That boom is unfolding alongside efforts to preserve lower-income housing: in May 2025, the Housing Authority of Plainfield selected WinnDevelopment to carry out a federal RAD-funded overhaul rehabilitating 353 affordable public housing units at Richmond Towers and Joanne Hollis Gardens. U.S. Census Bureau estimates from 2020-2024 put Plainfield's population at 55,236, with a median household income of $85,908 and a median property value of $410,800, offering a demographic backdrop for the wave of new market-rate rental supply headed to the city's commercial corridors.
-4.webp?w=160&h=400&fit=crop&crop=edges)
