Union City's Zoning Board of Adjustment has signed off on a four-story building with 18 apartments and two ground-floor stores at the intersection of Bergenline Avenue and 11th Street, clearing the way for new construction on a stretch of the block that included a parcel gutted by fire three years ago. The approval covers five parcels assembled under the address range 1007-1015 Bergenline Avenue.
According to Jersey Digs, the board voted on the application during its September 10 meeting, with 1007-1011 Bergenline Ave LLC planning to demolish two existing structures and erect the new building. Legal notices published in the Bergen Record confirm the board's action on Block 47, Lots 15-19, as required under New Jersey's Municipal Land Use Law.
The planned building will include 12 two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom units, with apartments ranging from 1,160 to 1,313 square feet, the Jersey Digs report states. Each of the second through fourth floors is set to hold four two-bedroom and two three-bedroom apartments, while the ground floor will house two commercial spaces measuring 823 and 880 square feet. The building will also include 34 parking spaces, according to the same report, though the reason the application required zoning board review rather than a different approval path was not made clear in the meeting materials Jersey Digs reviewed.
A Site Still Marked by a 2023 Fire
Part of the assemblage sat vacant and damaged well before this proposal took shape. A fire tore through 1007 Bergenline Avenue on February 8, 2023, displacing residents from five apartments and destroying structures on the block, according to a GoFundMe page set up for those affected; no deaths were reported in connection with the blaze.
Property records cited by Jersey Digs show the applicant bought 1007 Bergenline Avenue in July 2025 for $400,000, a parcel that had contained a 4,950-square-foot building dating to 1910. The adjacent 1015 Bergenline Avenue property, which held an 8,649-square-foot structure also built in 1910, last sold in December 2015, when a Union City-based LLC paid $575,000 for it. Jersey Digs reports the two lots carry a combined assessed value of roughly $1.5 million as of 2026, and the broader assemblage includes three additional empty parcels.
More Infill Arriving Along the Corridor
The project adds to a string of recent approvals nearby. The zoning board signed off on a separate three-story mixed-use building at 1013 Bergenline Avenue in 2025 that is expected to bring ground-floor commercial space, 12 parking spaces, and six residential units, per Jersey Digs. Less than half a mile away, the Union City Planning Board approved an 11-story building at 1300 Manhattan Avenue in March 2026 that will yield 221 units and 316 parking spaces.
Such infill continues a pattern documented in the city's own planning records. Union City's 2021 Master Plan Land Use Element Update found that industrial land in the city shrank 35% between 2009 and 2021, falling from 18 acres to 11.6 acres as residential and commercial projects replaced older uses, according to the City of Union City Land Use Element Update.
Density, Parking and Rent Rules Shape the Project
Union City is among the most densely populated municipalities in the country, with U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts recording a population density of 53,293.7 residents per square mile across the city's 1.29 square miles of land in 2020. That density has long pushed municipal planners to scrutinize infill housing closely, and local land-use documents emphasize that multi-family developments must provide adequate on-site parking to avoid worsening street-parking congestion, according to an analysis from Sonia DaSilva Real Estate — a concern the 34-space parking count at 1007-1015 Bergenline Avenue appears designed to address.
Any new rental units built in Union City also face state rent-control rules that can trip up developers who miss a filing deadline. A July 2022 ruling by the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division, in Willow Ridge Apartments, LLC v. Union City Rent Stabilization Board, found that property owners must file an exemption claim notice with local construction officials at least 30 days before obtaining a certificate of occupancy to secure a state rent control exemption under the Newly Constructed Multiple Dwellings Law, according to CSG Law. Missing that window forfeits a 30-year rent control exemption. Union City's own Rent Stabilization Ordinance, Chapter 334, updated in 2019, separately requires that multi-family rental buildings retain municipal rent control protections for existing tenants even after a property sale or a change in owner-occupancy.
Walkable Corridor, Heavy Transit Access
The new building sits on Bergenline Avenue, which stretches 4.4 miles through Union City, West New York, Guttenberg and North Bergen and is recognized as the longest continuous commercial avenue in New Jersey, supporting more than 300 storefronts, according to Wikipedia. The corridor grew out of a 19th-century trolley line into what is now North Hudson County's main shopping strip.
Transit access along the avenue includes the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station at 49th Street, built roughly 160 feet underground beneath the Palisades cliffs, along with multiple NJ Transit bus routes running directly to Midtown Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal, per RIPCO Real Estate. That access dovetails with Hoboken's walkability crown, since a national walkability evaluation published this month gave Union City a score of 94 out of 100, tying it with neighboring West New York in the top tier of so-called Walker's Paradise municipalities nationwide.
