A six-story, 106-unit apartment building is headed for Aspen Place in Passaic after the city's Planning Board signed off on the proposal at its Oct. 14 meeting. The development would replace the administrative offices of the Passaic City Housing Authority, while the Alfred Speer Village apartment complex next door would remain standing as part of the plan.
The board's vote, reported by News12 New Jersey, greenlights an application from State Street Owners LLC covering the addresses 1-33 and 35-51 Aspen Place. Beyond the apartment building itself, the approved plans call for new utilities, drainage work, surface parking and other site improvements on the property.
How This Fits Into a Much Bigger Overhaul
The Aspen Place approval lands inside a far larger push by the Passaic City Housing Authority to remake Alfred Speer Village, which the City of Passaic describes as its largest and oldest public housing complex and for which it has been seeking redevelopment partners. The authority's own resident notices lay out a broader plan to construct new housing and rehabilitate existing apartments across the site, not just swap out the office building.
According to a Housing Authority resident information notice, the agency has proposed redeveloping the complex in three phases: demolishing the office building at 52 Aspen Place to build 120 new multifamily units, rehabilitating four existing buildings totaling 256 units, and eventually tearing down two remaining State Street buildings to add another 120 mixed-income units. That same notice states Alfred Speer Village currently holds 383 units, with the authority contemplating a redeveloped site of up to 504 units — a jump the City of Passaic also cites in describing its goal to grow the complex past 500 units.
Federal Approval and Resident Protections Already in Motion
Parts of that larger plan have already cleared a federal hurdle. The Housing Authority has said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approved its application to convert Alfred Speer Village from traditional public housing to Section 8 assistance through the Rental Assistance Demonstration program. The authority's notices describe these redevelopment plans as subject to change as research and funding efforts continue.
Those same Housing Authority documents spell out protections for current residents tied to the broader overhaul. Displaced residents would be entitled to return to an assisted unit once construction wraps up, subject to the RAD plan and applicable requirements, and the General Information Notice states that permanently displaced residents would receive at least 90 days' advance written notice before having to move.
Broader Redevelopment Plans
A separate 2024 report from NJ.com indicated the broader three-phase redevelopment was expected to begin around 2026, while Jersey Digs has reported that Westchester, New York-based L+M Development Partners would be involved in the wider Speer Village project. The newly approved Aspen Place application is for a 106-unit building.
