A new luxury residential development is currently being built on Route 46 in Dover, which is expected to bring 90 new rental apartments to the city.
Joint venture partners CrownPoint and Crossroads Companies are developing the 0.74-acre site and hope to open it next year. The City Council cleared the way in 2019 by declaring the property an area in need of redevelopment. Later, in 2021, it passed a redevelopment plan that allowed residential construction in a commercial area.
Nine of the units will be considered affordable housing and will count toward the affordable housing quota mandated by Dover State. The rest will be sold as “luxury apartments” at market rates, according to the developers.
The site was previously occupied by Hibachi Kitchen for a number of years, after serving as the sports bar and restaurant Attilio’s Tavern for several years. According to the redevelopment plan, the building has now been vacant “for several years.”
Six floors plus roof terrace
The new six-story building will have 465 square meters of “indoor and outdoor amenities,” including two floors of structured parking (117 spaces) beneath four floors of apartments and a rooftop deck, which the developers say is a first for Dover.
The developer has not listed any further details about the units and options. Its website states: “More details coming soon.”
“PILOT”-prepared deal
The city also granted developers a “PILOT” program — payment in lieu of taxes — in 2022, which replaces traditional property taxes with a discounted payment plan. PILOTs have become a controversial issue in some cities, including Parsippany. Critics say the plans exclude school districts and local fire departments from direct tax revenue.
PILOT supporters, including Dover Mayor James Dodd, argue that they are necessary and effective tools to encourage developers to transform vacant or undeveloped properties into profitable assets for the city.
“I think PILOTs are the only way to do development right now,” Dodd said at a council meeting in January, speaking about another residential project on Blackwell Street. “There has to be a benefit for both the community and the developer. It has to be a win-win for both.”
The PILOT programs of recent years have also typically included a provision to rent out 10% of the new units as social housing in order to meet the state-mandated obligation of the respective city to create more social housing.
This article originally appeared in the Morristown Daily Record: Development in Dover: 90 rental apartments to be built on Route 46
