Newark officials have approved the discounted sale of two city-owned parcels in the West Ward, paving the way for a revised mixed-use project that will replace a long-discussed grocery concept with a smaller neighborhood-scale convenience store and commercial development at 92 and 94 Stuyvesant Avenue.
The Newark City Council finalized the action during its February 4 public meeting, voting first to amend the original redevelopment proposal and then to approve the land disposition itself. The revised plan authorizes the sale of the adjacent properties to The Manor Restaurant LLC, marking a significant change in direction from the earlier concept that envisioned a full grocery store as the anchor tenant.
City records show the transaction has been under consideration since at least October 2025, but the amendment fundamentally alters the scope of the project. Instead of a larger food market designed to serve a wider area of the West Ward, the development will now center on a convenience retail operation integrated into a mixed-use structure.
The two city-owned lots, currently held by Newark’s Department of Economic and Housing Development, will be sold for a combined price of $75,000. That figure represents a 25 percent reduction from the $100,000 sale price previously proposed by the city. According to the resolution approved by the council, the parcels together measure approximately 50 feet by 100 feet and carry a combined assessed value of $133,000, as listed by the Essex County Tax Board.
Under Newark’s long-standing 2004 municipal ordinance governing land sales, the transaction equates to roughly $15 per square foot. The city originally acquired the properties in 2016 following a foreclosure, and the lots have remained vacant since.
The buyer, The Manor Restaurant LLC, is registered at 795 Sanford Avenue in the Vailsburg neighborhood, an address shared with the well-known Family Manor Restaurant, a Dominican eatery located about one mile south of the Stuyvesant Avenue site. While the business entity purchasing the land is separate, the geographic link has drawn attention from community members and council observers following the transaction.
As part of the agreement, the city has imposed strict development and workforce requirements. Construction must begin within three months of the transfer of title and must be completed within 18 months. In addition, the developer is required to ensure that at least 30 percent of all contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers engaged on the project are Newark-based firms. The resolution also directs the developer to prioritize hiring Newark residents for the jobs generated by construction and ongoing operations.
Despite the council’s approval, detailed architectural plans and a public site layout have not yet been released by the Department of Economic and Housing Development. Without those documents, the precise mix of commercial and potential residential uses, building height, and design features remain unknown.
The amended project was sponsored by West Ward Council Member Dupre L. Kelly. Neither the sponsoring office nor representatives for The Manor Restaurant LLC provided public comment following the vote.
Beyond the transaction itself, the development marks a noticeable shift in how smaller-scale redevelopment is unfolding in the West Ward. Over the past several years, the overwhelming share of major new construction in this part of Newark has clustered along the Springfield Avenue corridor. That stretch has become the focal point for institutional-scale projects tied to healthcare facilities, large retail centers, and mixed-use complexes with regional reach.
In contrast, the Stuyvesant Avenue parcels sit three blocks from the commercial heart of Vailsburg at South Orange Avenue and are positioned within a residential fabric that has seen far less recent investment. The site is also located roughly one mile from Seton Hall University and the East Orange Veterans Affairs Medical Center, placing it at a crossroads between residential neighborhoods and major institutional anchors without being directly embedded in a large redevelopment zone.
Urban planners and neighborhood advocates have increasingly argued that infill projects of this size can play an important role in stabilizing commercial corridors that have not attracted large developers. Small mixed-use buildings, particularly those that introduce everyday services such as convenience retail, can activate underused parcels and restore foot traffic without dramatically altering neighborhood scale.
Still, the decision to move away from a grocery-focused concept has raised questions about long-term community impact. Food access remains a persistent concern in several sections of the West Ward, and some residents had hoped the original proposal would evolve into a broader fresh-food retail option. City officials have not indicated whether additional grocery-oriented projects are being pursued nearby.
From an economic development standpoint, the reduced sale price reflects a strategy the city has increasingly employed to spur private investment on long-vacant municipal land. By lowering acquisition costs and pairing them with strict performance benchmarks and local hiring requirements, Newark aims to accelerate construction timelines while ensuring that redevelopment dollars circulate within the local economy.
The Stuyvesant Avenue approval also illustrates the growing diversity of project types now shaping Newark’s development pipeline. While headline-making projects continue to rise downtown and along major commercial corridors, neighborhood-level transactions are quietly redefining how reinvestment reaches smaller blocks and residential districts.
Additional coverage and analysis on neighborhood development trends and Newark real estate activity can be found through Sunset Daily News.
As the city awaits formal construction plans and permitting submissions, the West Ward project stands as a closely watched test of whether targeted, smaller-scale mixed-use development—backed by public land and enforceable local participation requirements—can deliver tangible benefits to communities that have long remained on the sidelines of Newark’s broader development boom.
