By Laura D.C. Kolnoski
FORT MONMOUTH – An 18.6-acre site on Fort Monmouth in Eatontown near the long-shuttered Burger King is being offered for sale to a purchaser who must develop a 62-unit affordable housing community of townhouses, apart- ments and/or single-family detached homes. A 13.4-acre adjacent property, formerly the fort’s football field, will become open space.
The Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) voted unanimously June 18 to advertise the “Eatontown Housing Parcel” to potential purchasers first, with the open space portion held back for a later date, FMERA documents state. As per its appraised value, the minimum bid for the 18.6-acre parcel will be $1.13 million.
The formal Request for Offers to Purchase will be advertised on FMERA’s website, fortmonmouthnj.com, via email and in newspapers, said Sarah Giberson, FMERA director of real estate development and marketing. Interested parties should sign up for email notifications on the website under the Developer Information tab.
According to Eatontown Mayor Anthony Talerico Jr., there is already interest.
“We planned for this, it’s part of Eatontown’s approved affordable housing plan,” he said, adding the development will help achieve the borough’s affordable housing goals.
The site sits in the southern section of the main post along Oceanport Way, bordered by the Federal Credit Union to the east, Husky Brook Pond to the north, the designated open space area to the west, and the Patterson Army Health Clinic to the south. The Burger King, Federal Credit Union and other ancillary structures will be demolished.
Professional FMERA staff and the authority’s Real Estate Subcommittee recommended advertising the housing parcel rather than soliciting sealed bids, “based on the fact that the offer to purchase process allows for the greatest flexibility and provides potential purchasers with an opportunity to maximize the site’s highest and best use as it relates to the required affordable housing development,” staff wrote.
The action resulted from Netflix’s pending purchase of 292-plus fort acres spanning Eatontown and Oceanport known as the Mega Parcel to create Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth, a 12-soundstage production facility. (Netflix and FMERA could close on the property by the end of this year, with buildout estimated at three years.) As Netflix’s complex will not include residential development, housing planned throughout the Mega Parcel a decade ago needed to be relocated.
In the master Reuse Plan for Fort Monmouth’s future, formulated after the U.S. Army closed the base in 2011, 1,500 housing units, with 20% affordable, were mandated throughout the fort. Various types of housing – luxury townhomes nearing completion at the Suneagles Golf Course in Eatontown, historic renovated Officers Row homes now called East Gate in Oceanport, the Patriot’s Square mixed-use development across from the Tinton Falls Municipal Complex – are part of the mix. The fort’s 1,126 acres cover portions of Eatontown, Oceanport and Tinton Falls. As the Eatontown Housing Parcel was originally bifurcated by municipal boundaries, Eatontown and Oceanport adopted ordinances in 2023 to realign the municipal boundary, placing the property wholly within Eatontown’s borders.
The Eatontown Housing Parcel incorporates all of the borough’s outstanding affordable housing units formerly designated for the Mega Parcel and allows for eight one-bedroom units, 36 two-bedroom units and 18 three-bedroom units. Accessory uses such as greenhouses, hydroponic gardens and more features “customary and incidental to residential development” are also permitted. Market rate units are not permitted.
The existing adjacent track and sports fields have been determined to no longer be suitable for reuse due to deteriorating conditions and will be deed-restricted for both passive and active recreational open space.
The article originally appeared in the June 26 – July 2, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
