What To Know About The New Vermella Belmar Complex

Belmar’s Planning Board has formally unveiled plans for a new luxury rental building called Vermella Belmar at 800 River Road.

The four-story, 198-unit complex would include a rooftop deck, gym, and pool overlooking the Shark River, plus a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom apartments. Twenty of those units would be designated as affordable housing.

Development in Belmar

Russo Development already manages luxury communities across New Jersey in places like Kearny, Belleville, Newark and Union. Now they’re staking a claim in Belmar’s Seaport Redevelopment Zone, right at the gateway into town.

The plan includes a U-driveway off Route 35, parking garages, bike storage, wide sidewalks, and handicap access ramps. There’ll even be a landscaped buffer between the building and the roadway, with salt-tolerant grasses and lighting in the boardwalk style.

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Canva / Townsquare Media illiustration

What the Belmar development naysayers will say

Amenities will include a courtyard with a BBQ lounge and an actual dog run on the rooftop! Also, they’ll have movie theater seating overlooking Shark River.

Sounds good, right? Well sorta. But there are gonna be naysayers.

Yup. There are gonna be people saying “Not more development!” but hear me out: Every growing state needs building. If you’re worried about open space disappearing, move to Montana.

We’ve always been a densely populated state because of our small size, and if you live here anyway, it makes sense that other people wanna live here too, and we gotta make room for those people to live in this state.

Canva / Townsquare Media illiustration

Can't stop the progress in New Jersey

You can’t just put a big lock on it and say stop coming in. This is progress. Here in New Jersey, we need housing, and we need affordable units. Complaints are part of the package, but Vermella will bring residents, support local businesses, and provide much-needed rentals, including affordable ones.

For reference, the site I’m referring to now houses the old Riverview Pavilion and Belmar Motor Lodge. They’ll all be demolished to make way for this development. And while nobody loves change overnight, Belmar’s waterfront is begging for a refresh.

In short, yes, it’s a big change. But development in New Jersey isn’t just acceptable; it’s exactly the kind of progress New Jersey needs.

NJ towns that need to build the most affordable housing

These 33 municipalities have the greatest number of affordable housing units that should be built, according to calculations by the Department of Community Affairs.

The "present need" refers to existing but deficient housing occupied by low- and moderate-income households. "Prospective need" refers to the housing that would have to be built in the next 10 years to accommodate the estimated growth of low- and moderate-income households. The state used a formula that considers a municipality's income and land capacity.

The current housing and population counts are from the 2020 Census.

Gallery Credit: New Jersey 101.5

New Jersey home price increases in 2024 by county

The New Jersey real estate market continues to chug along.

Below is a county-by-county breakdown of median home prices and how they much they jumped in 2024. Many counties saw double-digit increases in home values, according to the data from New Jersey Realtors from November 2023 to November 2024.

Gallery Credit: Rick Rickman

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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