The transformation of the site takes another step forward as the board greenlights the 753-unit redevelopment of the 3.31-acre public housing site.

At its July 28 meeting, the Jersey City Planning Board officially gave the green light to the long-awaited redevelopment of Holland Gardens, which was originally announced in 2023 [Jersey City]. While the core vision driven by the Jersey City Housing Authority (JCHA) remains intact, several details of the plan were slightly refined and expanded between February and August of 2025 when resubmitted to the Planning Board before the new mayoral administration took office.

The finalized plans feature a noticeable bump in density, height, and overall affordable unit counts compared to earlier presentations, which we reported on in March of last year.

The board approved a revised plan totaling 753 residential units—an addition of 34 units above the 719-unit footprint originally proposed in early 2025. The project is being developed in partnership with WinnCompanies, following a Master Developer Agreement signed with JCHA back in January of 2025.

Revised Height and Unit Counts

• Revised Height: The project’s vertical footprint has grown. While previous iterations called for an 18-story tower on Erie Street and a 23-story tower on Jersey Avenue, the main tower will now reach 24 stories in height and the other has increased to 19 stories.
• Parcel Breakdown: The development is divided across two distinct parcels, with 621 units situated on the North Parcel that contains the 24-story towers, and 132 units on the South Parcel (comprising the 102-unit senior building, the 30-unit condo building, and the library/community center).

Increased Low-Income & Senior Housing

The total count of income-restricted units has expanded to 310 (up from the previously planned 294):

• North Building (178 Affordable Units): Includes 56 1-BR, 74 2-BR, 42 3-BR, and 6 4-BR units. This covers the 1-to-1 replacement for current Holland Gardens public housing residents with guaranteed right of return.
• Senior Building (102 Affordable Units): Expanded from 74 to 102 senior income-restricted units, featuring 99 1-BR and 3 2-BR layouts.
• For-Sale Condo Building (30 Affordable Units): Increased from 28 to 30 income-restricted for-sale condos, all featuring 2-bedroom layouts.

A New Community Anchor

Among the most distinctive elements of the plan is a 5-story, 18,100 sq. ft. community building that will be Jersey City’s first mass-timber structure. The building will house a public library branch, a rooftop enclosed playground for children, and an office for JCHA’s Resident Empowerment and Community Engagement Department. Situated along 15th Street between the South Parcel’s two low-rise residential buildings, it anchors the community-serving southern half of the site.

The development also includes 33,700 sq. ft. of ground-floor commercial and retail space—roughly equivalent to three C-Town supermarkets, or about three-quarters the footprint of the Target that recently opened in Journal Square.

A Note on Parking

The approved plan includes 391 parking spaces across 753 units—a ratio meaningfully higher than what recent private developments in the nearby Jersey Avenue Light Rail Redevelopment Plan area have proposed. Five recent proposals in that zone provide fewer than 0.37 spaces per unit; some provide none at all. Based on shifts between earlier and later plan versions, JCHA appears to have directed WinnCompanies to add roughly one parking space per two market-rate units. The high amount of required parking takes away from the amount of housing that can be put within the existing footprint, which is the main missed opportunity here. 

Despite the parking note, this plan sets a high bar for developing affordable housing. Unlike nearby Hoboken, which has limited the scale of its own public housing replacement plans and forfeited an opportunity to expand affordable housing in the process, Jersey City is not only replacing every existing unit one-for-one but substantially growing the total count of homes at every income level to create a mixed-income community in a growing neighborhood.