A decade after a nursing home was demolished there, site work has begun on an empty lot near the heart of downtown Red Bank.

What’s Going On Here? Click ‘read more’ to find out. (Photo by John T. Ward.. Click to enlarge)

A rendering of the project, dubbed the Element, with Trinity Episcopal Church at far right. (Rendering by Lance Blake. Click to enlarge.)

Going in opposite Riverside Gardens Park at 55 West Front Street is the Element,  a 35-unit apartment building with self-contained parking beneath an elevated patio for tenants.

The project won planning board approval in March, 2017, almost a year after an identical proposal was rejected by the zoning board as “too dense.” In between the two hearings, the borough council passed a controversial redevelopment plan that gave the developers — Ralph Braha, Steven Zekaria and Joe Shabot — a second chance.

The site was formerly the address of a nursing facility, which was razed in 2007 after the current owners won approval to build 27 condos on the site. But construction on that plan never began, and the owners returned to the borough with the rental project citing changes in the housing market.

Debra Tantleff, project manager for the development group, tells redbankgreen the Element is expected to be ready for occupancy by the late fourth quarter of 2018.

What will the units cost? It’s still “too early to quote any rental rates,” she said.