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SOMERVILLE, NJ – A work crew demolished the former Social Security office building on Davenport Street Monday morning.
The building had been surrounded by a chain link fence and orange safety barrels the past two weeks in preparation for demolition of the one-story building, which had fronted on the borough’s Parking Lot #2.
Weiss Properties, the owner of the property, has approval to build a 5-story, 60-unit apartment building on the site.
Developer Robert Weiss scaled back his original proposal which had met with opposition from merchants and residents concerned that the new building’s tenants would expropriate what limited parking space there is in the lot behind stores on West Main Street and adjacent to the Social Security building.
The revised plan for “The Davenport” reduces the number of apartments while increasing the number of parking spaces by adding a second sub-level beneath the building to accommodate cars.
The original plan called for 72 residential units – 12 studio apartments, 48 one-bedroom apartments and 12 two-bedroom apartments.
The revised plan calls for 60 residential units. The studio apartments were eliminated so that the new configuration features 40 one-bedroom apartments and 20 two-bedroom apartments.
There will be 68 parking spaces – 46 on the upper level, or ground floor, and 22 spaces on the sub-level. To satisfy the borough’s ordinance on occupancy and parking, which requires 1.2 spaces per rental unit, Weiss will need to purchase four or five parking permits from the borough.
Architect David Minno of Minno & Wasko Architects & Planners, Lambertville, describes The Davenport as an “attractive, in-town building.”
Weiss expects the building will attract the so-called Millenials, younger tenants looking for a pleasant place to live with enclosed parking, in a building designed to not look like a townhouse. He described The Davenport as “softened elegance, loaded with a lot of glass.”
A courtyard will be in the center of the building, with vehicular access to the ground floor and sublevel parking through two entrances.
Weiss expects site work to begin in the spring, with several months spent excavating for the underground parking garage.
The Social Security offices closed in late November, 2016 and relocated to an office building at the Bridgewater Plaza, 245 Route 22, located between Route 28 and Milltown Road on the westbound side of the state highway.
Weiss Properties, based in New Brunswick, is also the developer of the Cobalt Apartments, a 113-unit five-story development on Veterans Memorial Drive adjacent to the NJ Transit Raritan Valley line.