Woodbridge Is Turning a Failed Apartment Building Into Housing for Residents Who Need It Most
A luxury development that never found tenants along Route 440 is being converted into supportive housing for people with disabilities and high medical needs. A closing is expected next month.
The building at 99 Florida Grove Road in Hopelawn sat vacant after its developer’s luxury apartment concept failed to attract tenants. Woodbridge Township and the Raritan Bay Area YMCA plan to convert it into 28 units of supportive housing, with a closing expected in July 2026. (The Central Jerseyan)
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Chris Howell | June 11, 2026
Alongside Route 440 in Woodbridge, wedged inside a jug handle, sits an empty apartment building. It was supposed to be luxury apartments, but the location did not work. In addition to the highway is a nearby fuel depot.
Now the township is converting the failed project into affordable housing. The new plan would provide homes for residents with disabilities and other high needs, while also counting those units toward the township’s affordable housing quota under state law.
The township has approved nearly $5 million as its funding contribution toward the project. The Raritan Bay Area YMCA will operate the facility and serve as one of the funding partners.
The YMCA is not new to this work. The organization manages nearly 100 units of supportive housing across the region, according to President and CEO Steve Jobin, who spoke with The Central Jerseyan by email.
The project is called Sunrise Village. It will have 28 units at 99 Florida Grove Road in the Hopelawn section of Woodbridge. A closing is expected in July.
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The original developer built the three-story building as luxury apartments and priced units at $2,500 a month. The location did not attract those tenants. Woodbridge Mayor John E. McCormac said as much at a May council meeting.
“I question whether that spot is where luxury apartments should go,” he told the council. “They should go on Main Street, they should go near Metro Park, they should go near train stations.”
The stalled project left a completed, vacant building available, and the township saw an opportunity. Funding contributions are coming from the NJ Department of Community Affairs, Middlesex County, Woodbridge Township, and the YMCA. The City of Perth Amboy is also expected to be a partner. Each partner holds a long-term deed restriction on the property, legally guaranteeing the units remain affordable housing regardless of who operates them in the future.
“There are no equity partners in the traditional commercial sense,” Jobin said. “Our funding partners are vital stakeholders. They hold long-term deed restrictions on the property, ensuring mutual accountability and guaranteeing that the YMCA maintains these units as affordable, supportive housing for years to come.”
A Google Maps aerial view of the planned location for Sunrise Village.
Sunrise Village is not a shelter. Residents will sign leases, pay rent based on what they can afford, and be subject to the same landlord-tenant laws that apply to any apartment in New Jersey, Jobin said.
Three categories of residents are eligible. Some units are set aside for Medicaid recipients, referred directly by their health insurance providers and income-verified against state eligibility guidelines. Other units are filled through the Middlesex County Housing Management Information System, a coordinated placement database managed by YMCA case managers. A third category covers crisis placement — people suddenly displaced by fire, flood, or municipal code enforcement.
Jobin said every prospective resident also undergoes background checks under the New Jersey Fair Chance in Housing Act, which requires housing providers to evaluate criminal convictions based on the severity and recency of the offense rather than a blanket exclusion.
“Maintaining a safe, secure, and harmonious environment is our absolute priority,” he said. “Tenants are legally bound by their lease, and the YMCA enforces these standards rigorously to safeguard all parties.”
On-site services will be provided through the YMCA’s Center for Support, Success, and Prosperity, which operates out of 392 Smith Street in Perth Amboy, a short drive via Route 440.
“This integrated model allows us to wrap our existing, proven network of care directly around the residents, meeting them exactly where they live,” Jobin said.
Services will include case management, benefits assistance, help navigating SNAP and Medicaid enrollment, employment resources, and food security programs.
The Raritan Bay Area YMCA already operates eight multi-unit housing properties across the region, serving disabled veterans, people with mental illness and developmental disabilities, and survivors of domestic violence. In January 2025, the organization acquired a 39-unit rooming house in Perth Amboy in partnership with the state of New Jersey. Sunrise Village extends that work into Woodbridge.
“Our Y believes that every individual deserves the opportunity to thrive,” Jobin said, “but true health begins long before anyone walks through our doors. It starts where we live, learn, work, and raise our children.”
Florida Grove Road marks the boundary between Woodbridge and Perth Amboy. The addresses directly across the street from the building fall on the Perth Amboy side.
Kissy Gonzalez owns a home there. She said it is frustrating to see supportive housing going up across the street while, as a recently laid-off single mother, she feels she receives no assistance from the local government.
“I’m very disappointed,” Gonzalez said. “I would prefer if the homes were given to veterans and injured police officers, people who served.”
The YMCA’s existing housing portfolio already serves that population. Disabled veterans are among the groups the organization specifically targets across its eight multi-unit properties in the region, Jobin said.
Paul Lund, a Hopelawn resident, appeared at multiple council meetings asking about oversight, financial accountability, and tenant standards.
“Residents want reassurance that this is supportive housing, not unmanaged placement housing, which morphs over time from its original mission,” Lund said in May.
The deed restrictions held by each funding partner address that concern directly. The property cannot be converted to market-rate use without voiding them. Placement is coordinated through the Middlesex County Housing Management Information System, and lease enforcement and background check processes are governed by state law.
McCormac has pushed back on skeptics at four consecutive council meetings. The project, he has said, is “almost 100% humanitarian.”
Sunrise Village also serves a second purpose for the township. New Jersey municipalities face legal pressure to produce affordable housing under the state’s Mount Laurel doctrine, a constitutional obligation requiring towns to provide their fair share of housing for low- and moderate-income residents.
Governor Murphy signed landmark affordable housing legislation in March 2024, establishing a new framework for municipalities to meet those obligations. Towns that missed a deadline to adopt their fair share plan lost immunity from builder’s remedy lawsuits, which allow developers to override local zoning. More than 100 municipalities have already faced such challenges.
Woodbridge is not among them. McCormac told the council in May that the township will bank affordable housing credits from Sunrise Village for future use. “Ten years from now, if we have another requirement,” he said, “we can put those toward that requirement.”
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.