Developer Benjamin Nigri is very proud of The Summit Estates at 1722 Springfield Avenue in Maplewood, the newly opened 30-unit apartment rental building next to Lum’s Cellars and down the street from the Hilton Library, Maplecrest Park and nearby shopping and dining on Springfield Avenue and Newark Way/Boyden Avenue.
As of this week, 16 of 30 units are leased, including the five affordable units.
RELATED: Site Plan Approved for 30-Unit Apartment Building on Vacant Springfield Ave Lot, No Tax Abatement
As a father of three young children, the building is something of a fourth child for Nigri who is still in the early years of his development career. On a recent tour of the building, Nigri evinced obvious pride in the attention to detail that he brought to the project as well as the quality of materials that were used in construction.
Special touches include a water filtration cooler in the first-floor gym, 10-foot ceilings, 8-foot doors, specialty hardware, cabinet lighting, mini-split central air units, magnetic door latches and more. Many units have terraces — some quite large — in the back of the building with privacy screening. All the refrigerators have ice makers. All the apartments come with window shades: “The bedrooms have blackout shades. And the living spaces have light-filtered shades,” said Nigri. The units are sound insulated, both from the outside — the traffic from Springfield Avenue below could not be heard — and from the inside with sound dampening between apartments.
“I actually went ridiculously over budget on my lighting package,” said Nigri. The hallways are as bright and attractive as the apartments. “I’m going with a hotel kind of feel here. I did the paneling, the lighting. I just wanted it to feel special.”
Besides parking on the first floor — behind the large lobby which includes a meeting room, mail boxes and a coffee station — there are rentable storage units, a gym, and a mini-spa for dogs.
“I love dogs,” says Nigri. “I am a dog person.” The dog spa is available to tenants to wash, groom and dry pets after a walk or romp.
The building includes 6 one-bedroom units, 23 two-bedroom units, and 1 three-bedroom unit (which is one of the affordable housing units). A review of the leasing site, shows all one-bedroom units appear to be leased. The remaining 2-bedroom/2-bathroom units range from $3,650/mo (at 1400 sf) to $4,050/month (at 1540 sf). See floorplans here.
Nigri purchased the property in 2018 but the site plan took several iterations, and reductions in scale, before being approved by the Planning Board in May 2022. At that time, Springfield Avenue Partnership Executive Director Nicole Dooskin Wallace said, “Replacing an empty lot with a residential building will both remove an eyesore and bring more people (and potential customers) to Springfield Avenue. We also appreciate that the development team listened to feedback from the Springfield Avenue Partnership Design Review Committee, the Planning Board, and local residents, and responded with updates to the project.”
The project did NOT receive a tax abatement in the form of a PILOT or payment in lieu of taxes.
Village Green asked Nigri why he called the building The Summit.
“Our development company is called Summit Developers and we have a acquisitions company called Summit Assets,” said Nigri, but more importantly, he wanted the name to signify a certain quality of life: “I came up with a slogan when I started thinking about it — ‘Live at the top.'”
For more information, visit: https://thesummitestates.com/
