New Construction Developments Taking Shape in Union County, NJ — Part 3: The Northern Hills & the Buyer's Outlook

🏗️ Part 3 of a three-part series on new developments across Union County, NJ (2026). Start with Part 1 — the Corridor and Part 2 — the Transit Cities. Details evolve — verify current status with each municipality.

The northern hills are where Union County's development story turns most paradoxical. Summit — the county's priciest town, with a coveted Midtown Direct one-seat train — is also its most development-averse: its marquee Broad Street West redevelopment stalled amid fierce resident opposition, and most new housing now arrives only through state-mandated affordable-housing overlays. Just west, Berkeley Heights is doing the opposite, deliberately building a downtown from scratch with hundreds of new apartments, while the departure of Nokia Bell Labs from its historic Murray Hill campus puts a landmark site in play across the Berkeley Heights–New Providence line. And New Providence is quietly delivering best-in-class new construction of its own. Taken together with Parts 1 and 2, the picture is a county adding thousands of homes across every price tier at once — from Rahway's $400,000s to Summit's seven figures — reshaped by transit, downtowns, and a historic wave of affordable-housing obligations. For a buyer, the question is no longer whether your town is changing. It's how, how fast, and what that means for you.

Summit sits at the top of Union County in both price and prestige — a polished downtown, top schools, and a prized Midtown Direct one-seat ride to New York Penn on the Morris & Essex Line. It is also, tellingly, the hardest place in the county to build. Its signature redevelopment, Broad Street West — envisioned around 140 rental units — became one of the most contested local issues in recent memory (a campaign one outlet said "launched 1,000 yard signs"), and the process stalled at the City Council. The revised direction calls for something smaller: a reduced building or two, held to four stories and tighter density.

What's most instructive is how new housing actually arrives in a town like this. With what planners candidly call "entitlement friction," Summit's near-term growth is driven less by grand downtown plans than by New Jersey's fourth-round affordable-housing obligations. The city's amended Fair Share plan rezones overlay parcels — for example on the Incline Capital sites near Broad, Walnut, and Industrial Place — for roughly 45 units at four stories with a 20% affordable set-aside, with other overlay lots allowed modest density increases. It's a statewide dynamic worth understanding everywhere: even towns that resist market-rate towers are adding housing because the state requires it. For buyers, Summit remains a blue-chip hold; just don't expect its skyline to change quickly.

Where Summit resists, Berkeley Heights is leaning in — deliberately assembling a downtown. Modera Berkeley Heights, a 170-unit rental complex by Mill Creek Residential, is under construction, and The Terrace at Berkeley Heights brings 20 apartments and about 4,000 square feet of retail to a former movie-theater site on Springfield Avenue. Township officials are candid about the strategy: build enough rooftops to support new restaurants and shops, add pedestrian-friendly streets, and brand a real town center on its own terms rather than as merely "near Summit." Both towns sit on the Gladstone Branch, with Midtown Direct service to New York via Summit.

Next door, New Providence — 12,000 residents, top schools, and several corporate headquarters — is delivering Providence Place, a Garden Communities project on 27 acres a half-mile from the Murray Hill station, pairing two- and three-bedroom townhomes with apartments and resort-style amenities (an interest list of hundreds formed before delivery). Hanging over both towns is a landmark question: Nokia Bell Labs is leaving its historic Murray Hill campus — the site where the transistor, the laser, and the solar cell were invented, straddling the New Providence–Berkeley Heights line — for New Brunswick. What becomes of that iconic property is one of the most consequential redevelopment stories in the county's future, and one we'll be watching closely.

Sources: municipal plans, developer announcements, and local reporting (including Real Estate NJ, Patch, TAPinto), 2022–2026. Scopes, unit counts, and statuses are proposals subject to change and approvals — verify current status with each municipality and developer.

Step back from the individual projects and a clear pattern emerges across all three parts of this series. Union County is adding thousands of new homes at once, across every price tier — and the towns are pursuing three distinct playbooks. There are the downtown re-makers (Scotch Plains' nine-acre plan, Berkeley Heights' from-scratch center, and the corridor towns from Part 1); the transit-city boomtowns (Rahway above all, plus Plainfield, from Part 2); and the constrained-premier towns (Summit, and to a degree Westfield), where demand is fierce but new supply is slow and hard-won. Cutting across all of them is New Jersey's fourth-round affordable-housing mandate, which is quietly forcing even the most change-averse towns to zone for more homes.

For a New York family, that variety is the opportunity. The county now offers a genuine ladder — from Rahway's high-$400,000s new construction near a one-seat train, up through the mid-$800,000s corridor towns like Fanwood and Scotch Plains, to Summit and New Providence in seven figures. Match the town to what you actually value — the fastest train, the walkable village, the newest construction, the top-of-market address — and there's a fit at almost every budget.

Source: Zillow typical home value estimates, 2026, for towns across this series. Typical-value indices differ from median sale price; figures are point-in-time and illustrate the county's relative price ladder, not individual home values. Verify current comparables before relying.

When you're comparing towns, don't just ask "what does it cost here?" — ask "what's coming here, and when?" A town with an approved downtown plan or a large new development in the pipeline is on a different trajectory than one that's fully built out and fighting every variance. Sometimes the smart buy is the town about to transform (you're buying tomorrow's downtown at today's price); sometimes it's the constrained-premier town whose scarcity protects value. Neither is universally right — but knowing which kind of town you're buying into, and where it sits on its development curve, is the difference between a good decision and a lucky one.

"After three parts and two dozen projects, here's what I'd tell any New York family looking at Union County: this whole county is in motion, and that's good news for you. There's a town and a price for almost every priority — the fast train in Rahway, the walkable village in Fanwood, the blue-chip address in Summit, the brand-new downtown in Berkeley Heights. My job isn't to sell you the town I like. It's to read where each place is on its curve, match it to what you actually want, and get you in on the right side of the change. That's the whole game."

— Anthony Licciardello, Broker, The Prodigy Team

Tracking a whole county's development pipeline — and translating it into the right move for one family — is exactly what a cross-border broker should do. I'm Anthony Licciardello, Broker of The Prodigy Team — a former Bloomberg Administration Director of Community Affairs and one of the most trusted names in cross-border New York–New Jersey sales, bringing the New York market across the river to New Jersey sellers — and guiding city families to the right Union County town is work we do every week.

Our Above the Streets cinematic drone series extends that reach — aerial storytelling that markets entire towns, not just listings, with audience performance exceeding industry benchmarks for real estate media.

Anthony Licciardello · Broker, The Prodigy Team · 718-873-7345

Tell us your budget, your commute, and what you care about most, and we'll point you to the Union County town — and the moment on its development curve — that fits you best.

See Why Families Choose Us

What happened to Summit's Broad Street West redevelopment?

The Broad Street West project — originally envisioned around 140 rental units — became highly controversial and stalled at the Summit City Council. The city has signaled a revised, smaller approach, potentially one or two buildings held to about four stories with tighter density. Meanwhile, much of Summit's near-term new housing is arriving through New Jersey's fourth-round affordable-housing overlays rather than large downtown projects. Verify current status with the City of Summit.

What's being built in downtown Berkeley Heights?

Berkeley Heights is deliberately building up its downtown. Modera Berkeley Heights (170 rental units by Mill Creek Residential) is under construction, and The Terrace at Berkeley Heights adds 20 apartments plus about 4,000 square feet of retail at a former movie-theater site on Springfield Avenue. The township's strategy is to reach a critical mass of residents that can support new restaurants and shops and a walkable town center of its own.

What's happening with the Nokia Bell Labs Murray Hill campus?

Nokia Bell Labs announced it is leaving its longtime Murray Hill headquarters — the historic campus straddling New Providence and Berkeley Heights where the transistor, laser, and solar cell were invented — for a new building in New Brunswick. The future of that landmark property is one of the county's most significant upcoming redevelopment questions, with major implications for both towns. Details remain to be determined; watch for local announcements.

What does all this development mean for Union County buyers?

It means choice. Union County is adding thousands of homes across every price tier — from Rahway's high-$400,000s new construction near a one-seat train, through the mid-$800,000s corridor towns like Fanwood and Scotch Plains, to Summit and New Providence in seven figures. Towns are following different playbooks — remaking downtowns, booming around transit, or resisting growth while state mandates add housing anyway. The key for buyers is to match the town to their real priorities and understand where it sits on its development curve before buying.

Part 1 — The Westfield Corridor (Westfield, Scotch Plains, Cranford, Fanwood)
Part 2 — The Transit Cities & Eastern County (Rahway, Elizabeth, Linden, Plainfield)
Part 3 — The Northern Hills & the Buyer's Outlook (you're reading it)

The Fanwood Housing Market & the Corridor Price Ladder
Moving to Fanwood — The One-Square-Mile Town Guide
The Westfield–Scotch Plains–Fanwood Corridor Report
Rahway NJ — A Guide to the City's Neighborhoods
Westfield NJ Homes for Sale