By Sunayana Prabhu
FORT MONMOUTH – The Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) took two significant redevelopment actions at its July 15 meeting. The board approved an affordable housing agreement with the Red Bank-based nonprofit Lunch Break Inc. and voted to reissue a Request for Offers to Purchase (RFOTP) for the Eatontown Housing Parcel, continuing its push to complete redevelopment of the former U.S. Army post.
The board also heard redevelopment updates from Laura Drahushak, its interim executive director, who stepped into the role after the former executive director, Kara Kopach, announced her resignation last month to take a job with Netflix. Drahushak has served as the agency’s managing director for several years.
Agreement with Lunch Break
The board adopted a resolution approving a redevelopment agreement with Lunch Break Inc. for construction of 24 affordable housing units on a portion of the Monmouth County Emergency Shelter parcel in Oceanport. Lunch Break, founded in 1983, provides food, clothing, housing assistance and other services to residents of Monmouth County.
According to the redevelopment agreement adopted July 16, FMERA transferred the roughly 3.1-acre parcel to Monmouth County in November 2017 for the construction of a 16-bed emergency adult shelter, which was completed in March 2024. Monmouth County subsequently entered into a long-term lease with Lunch Break in January 2025 for development of the affordable housing units.
The project calls for 10 two-bedroom units, 10 three-bedroom units and four four-bedroom units in the form of townhouses, stacked flats or multifamily apartments. FMERA’s July 15 memorandum calls for Lunch Break to begin construction upon receiving building permits by Jan. 1, 2027, and complete the project by Jan. 1, 2029. The developer “will invest approximately $15 million in the project,” the memorandum states, and create 20 part-time construction jobs and one full-time position.
Eatontown Parcel
The board also authorized the termination and reissue of the RFOTP process for the Eatontown Housing Parcel, an approximately 18.6-acre site in the Main Post area along Oceanport Way. FMERA issued the original RFOTP Feb. 20 and received five submissions, but the board determined the offer lacked sufficient clarity on financial contingencies necessary for affordable housing development, according to the resolution approved by the board.
The revised RFOTP will advertise the same 18.6 acres for the development of 62 affordable housing units (eight one-bedroom, 36 two-bedroom and 18 three-bedroom units). No market-rate units are permitted in this project. An adjacent 13.4 acres will continue to be held back for passive and active open space and transferred at a later date.
According to the resolution, the minimum bid for the parcel is set at $1.13 million, based on its appraised value. The revised offer will permit financial contingencies tied to affordable housing tax credits and incentives, though contingencies such as PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) agreements will not be allowed.
FMERA’s Affordable Housing Plans
Housing proposals for both the Lunch Break and Eatontown Housing Parcel remain part of the agency’s broader affordable housing commitments.
FMERA has a 20% affordable housing requirement for all residential development on the former fort site, “among other low-income housing obligations as per our conveyance agreement with the Army,” said Sarah Giberson, FMERA’s director of Real Estate Development & Marketing, in an email July 27.
FMERA’s Reuse Plan targeted a goal of 1,585 residential units, Giberson said, adding that the agency has already helped facilitate the development of 40 permanent supportive housing units, the Monmouth County emergency adult homeless shelter, and Family Promise, which has since been acquired by Lunch Break.
Sections of the three boroughs that fall within the former Fort Monmouth borders (Oceanport, Eatontown and Tinton Falls) will follow their own housing mandates. “Municipal obligations for affordable housing are their own,” Giberson said in the email. “However, our units may count toward the municipality’s fulfillment of their mandate.”
When asked about FMERA’s remaining commercial and private redevelopment plans, Giberson said the agency currently has no other properties available for sale through its public procurement process.
Redevelopment Progress
FMERA’s annual report shows more than 86% of Fort Monmouth’s 1,126 acres are either sold, under contract or in various phases of negotiations. The agency has closed on 39 parcels across the three boroughs, with two more under contract or holding board-approved agreements.
Giberson anticipates the biggest redevelopment milestones residents could see at Fort Monmouth over the next year will be the RWJBarnabas Health cancer center and the first phase of Netflix’s production facility. Four of Netflix’s soundstages and some support buildings are expected to become operational in 2027, Giberson said.
According to some of the redevelopment updates detailed in board documents, FMERA has closed on 21 properties in Oceanport, including the 292-acre Mega Parcel sold to Netflix Inc. in December 2025, a project expected to bring nearly $850 million in capital investment to the community. Netflix is eyeing a 2027 completion of Phase 1 in Oceanport. The Eatontown portion with eight remaining soundstages is expected by fall 2028. The entire studio will include 12 soundstages, among other supporting structures.
Also in Oceanport, the Allison Hall site, a 13-acre parcel that includes reuse of the historic building, is being redeveloped as Riverwalk Center, with restaurants, recreation space, a brewery and a boutique hotel. Several businesses have already opened there, including Nicols Racquet, Spear Physical Therapy, Skinny Flowers brewery, Playa Bowls and CKO, among others.
In Eatontown, the board has closed on six properties, including Howard Commons, sold to Lennar Corp. in June 2025 for construction of 275 housing units along Pinebrook Road, including 20 units of supportive housing, and a retail component.
In Tinton Falls, FMERA has closed on 11 properties; one additional property is under contract. Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health (RWJBH) is constructing a cancer center as part of a planned health campus on a roughly 36-acre parcel at the former Myer Center. RWJBH is in the process of building a full-scale hospital there in a future phase. The healthcare provider also holds a separate contract for a medical office building, a solar energy system and recreational facilities, including athletic fields, tennis courts and a walking trail.
The article originally appeared in the July 30 – August 5, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
