A six-story, 113-unit rental building with ground-floor retail and a sprawling public plaza is headed to the corner of Stuyvesant and Morris avenues in Union Township, after the township's Planning Board signed off on developer Landmark's latest proposal. The project adds another piece to the growing CENTURION Union Center redevelopment, which has been reshaping the downtown block by block over the past several years.
The approval, reported by ROI-NJ, clears a planning milestone for the new building and plaza, though the outlet notes that no construction start date or completion timeline has been provided. The building itself will include 10,000 square feet of retail space and 143 structured parking spaces, according to the same report.
At the heart of the plan is a 24,000-square-foot landscaped plaza designed by MHS Architecture, with landscaping handled by Melillo Bauer Carman Landscape Architecture. Ground-floor shops and restaurants will face the plaza directly, and a 10-foot-wide strip along the storefronts has been set aside for outdoor dining and pedestrian activity, per ROI-NJ.
A Plaza Built for Year-Round Use
The plaza is meant to do more than sit empty between events. Its layout includes smaller seating areas alongside open space that could accommodate concerts, farmers markets, holiday celebrations and other township-event programming, including the car show the township already holds, ROI-NJ reports. Native plantings and elevation changes are intended to create separation from nearby traffic while still keeping the space accessible.
Tom Carman, principal of Melillo Bauer Carman Landscape Architecture, said the design balances everyday use with flexibility for events and gatherings, according to ROI-NJ's report on the approval.
A landscaped passageway will link the new plaza to a parking garage Landmark recently finished nearby. That garage holds 105 public parking spaces and another 107 reserved for CENTURION residents, the outlet notes.
Another Piece of a Bigger Downtown Puzzle
The newly approved building is one phase of a broader redevelopment that Landmark has been building out in Union Township for years. The CENTURION Union Center project traces back to a public-private partnership between Landmark and the township, aimed at revitalizing a downtown that had seen little to no new residential construction in more than 30 years, according to RE-NJ.
As it stands, CENTURION Union Center currently has 267 rental residences and nearly 15,000 square feet of occupied retail space, according to Landmark figures cited by Yield PRO. Where the project ultimately lands once finished is less clear: Landmark has told ROI-NJ the completed redevelopment will include about 472 residences and 45,000 square feet of retail across six buildings, while the developer told NJ.com last year that the finished project would total 363 apartments and roughly 32,000 square feet of retail. The two figures have not been reconciled.
Earlier phases have already delivered real units to the neighborhood. The fifth phase, a five-story building at 968 Bonnel Court with 85 residences and 105 public parking spaces, was approved back in February 2022 and reported finished in January, according to New York YIMBY. That building was already 65 percent leased as of this past April, RE-NJ reported at the time. Across all previous phases, Centurion Union Center had delivered 182 homes and 10 retail spaces totaling nearly 15,000 square feet, per RE-NJ's reporting.
Landmark's Footprint Keeps Expanding
Landmark is not stopping at Union Township. The company is also building a separate mixed-use property with 92 rental residences and about 14,000 square feet of retail, expected to be completed in 2027, ROI-NJ reports; the company said that project will help frame the new plaza once it's finished. Landmark's existing portfolio already includes a 114-unit property in Elizabeth and a 72-unit, historically inspired community in Newark's Ironbound district, according to RE-NJ.
Landmark founder Manny A. Fernandez framed the newly approved project as part of a broader strategy for the company. Fernandez said Landmark's plan combined housing, businesses and public spaces to support downtown activity, per ROI-NJ's report.
For now, the project remains in the approval stage, with the design details — the plaza, the retail frontage, the garage connection — set but the construction calendar still unannounced.
