By BRIAN DONOHUE
The 115-year-old home with a white picket fence at 38 Bank Street was classic Red Bank, right down to the studs in the wall and the story of the couple that lived there.
A narrow two-bedroom colonial with a welcoming front porch, its design was a model replicated hundreds of times across town during the early 20th century, and one in which many people still live today.
For decades until he died in 2011, it was the home of Red Bank native David Sims, a Korean War veteran, heating oil deliveryman for Fred D Wikoff Co., and deacon at St. Paul Baptist Church, along with his wife, Mary Lou, who died in 2001.
Last year, a developer’s backhoe came and tore it down.
And over the past year, a new home has risen on the site that no oil truck driver will likely be able to afford: a five-bedroom, four-bath 2,800 square foot home that fills the lot from front to back, with an oversized garage as the central feature and a $1.1 million price tag.
It’s a pattern that is repeating itself over and over amid a town-wide building boom dominated by either million-dollar McMansions and luxury condos, often with affordable units set aside for income-eligible applicants. The changes mirror a nationwide trend that experts say is leaving a lack of options for middle-income earners who can’t afford – or don’t qualify for – either option. 
In planning circles, it’s called the “missing middle,” a term used to define the growing nationwide lack of new housing that fills the middle ground in both price tag and design.
Planners also use the phrase to describe a range of housing types advocates say could fix the problem if more could be built: duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and small apartments or homes that fit the character of their neighborhoods and might be more affordable to first-time homebuyers, tenants, or retirees.
In places like New Jersey and even more acutely in Red Bank, where property values have soared, it’s a frequent topic of conversation that cuts to the core of the town’s identity and raises questions over what kind of place it is becoming.
Longtime residents wonder where their kids will live when they’re grown. Where will they themselves live when they retire? Where will our teachers and police officers live and and who will sign up for the volunteer fire department?
And the issue bubbled to the surface when Planning Board Chairman Dan Mancuso announced his intention to vote against a massive redevelopment plan for the area around the NJ Transit rail station in April. The plan, temporarily tabled and sent to a subcommittee, would require the builder to create at least 80 affordable units, but likely would otherwise be dominated by pricey high-end apartments.
“It helps a very small and very needy population get a place to live,” Mancuso said of the plan’s affordable housing component.
But he added, “It doesn’t help our kids get a place to live here,” before adding a reference to his own son, who he said, “will live in Florida until I die and leave him my house.”
“We have a significant challenge with people wanting to live here,” he said. “For the most part, the majority of us couldn’t buy our houses today.”
The newly constructed home for sale at 38 Bank Street (photo by Brian Donohue)
Experts cite a number of factors behind the phenomenon of the “missing middle”: restrictive local zoning regulations that favor larger single family homes; skyrocketing construction costs; and builders seeking maximum profit that comes by catering to the wealthiest home buyers in the market.
Red Bank builder Jim Whelan, who bought the property at 38 Bank Street that had sat vacant since David Sims’ death, said he chose to build the large, $1.1 million home for two reasons: it was what was allowed by borough zoning laws and it was what he could turn a profit on.
Whelan bought the property in 2022 for $220,000 from an heir of David and Mary Lou Sims after it had sat vacant for several years, property records show. By the time it was built, Whelan said construction costs had soared past $600,000. Such costs, from labor to supplies, he said, have risen rapidly in recent years.
If he built something different, he said, “I just would not get a return on my investment that would make it worthwhile.”
The block is also zoned for single-family homes. Asked if he considered building something on the site that might be smaller or more affordable, he said he’d be happy to build other types of housing so long as it covered his investment.
“If they change the laws, I’ve always wanted to build smaller homes,” he said.
But Whelan would not have to look for examples of what might have happened if he had proposed one of the “missing middle” options planners say would help fill the growing need.
A few blocks away at 316 Shrewsbury Avenue, a developer in 2018 submitted plans to build a three-unit apartment complex on a property where a single-family home had burned down. The units would likely have been more affordable to middle-class families than what was eventually built there.
The project needed a host of variances, and neighbors and Zoning Board members spoke out against the plan, saying it was inconsistent with the neighborhood of single-family homes built a century earlier.
The builders complied with the Zoning Board’s and neighbors’ wishes, withdrawing the application and building a single-family home. It sold for $1.1 million, a record for the long-working-class west side neighborhood that drew howls on social media from long time Red Bankers slackjawed by the price tag.
The single-family home at 316 Shrewsbury Avenue that sold for $1.1 million was built after an earlier plan for four smaller apartments was rejected. (photo by Brian Donohue)
In New Jersey, leadership on how to address this issue is coming from an entity Red Bank residents might find ironic: New Jersey Transit.
The same agency whose designated developer, Denholtz, has proposed the concept plan for 400-apartments in a pair of five and six story buildings by the train station, last week hosted a seminar at its Newark headquarters to help local officials build more smaller-scale “gentle density” projects to address the growing housing crisis.
The conference comes on the heels of a September 2024 NJ Transit draft report entitled Gentle Density and the Missing Middle Housing in New Jersey: A Guide for Municipalities.
(The report was co-authored by Meghan Massey, NJ Transit’s Director of Transit-Friendly Housing. Massey is also a member of the Red Bank Planning Board, and has recused herself from hearings and votes on the train station project.)
“Demographic shifts, including the rise in one- and two-person households and ongoing affordability concerns, have made the need for middle housing more urgent,” the report reads. “As homes have grown larger and household sizes have shrunk, many first-time buyers and renters struggle to find affordable options. Middle housing provides an opportunity to add density without dramatically altering neighborhood character, addressing the affordability gap and meeting the needs of diverse populations, especially in locations near transit hubs, where new development is often dominated by high-density housing. “
The report recommends changes in local zoning laws to allow things like duplexes, quads, or townhouses in areas zoned for single-family housing. It also recommends allowing the construction of Accessory Dwelling Units, or small cottages behind an existing home, sometimes referred to as “mother-in-law” suites.
In general, the report recommends the smaller “gentle density” model for transitional neighborhoods currently zoned for single-family homes, as opposed to the large parking lots directly near stations where the agency’s developers have built or proposed higher-density apartment buildings in recent years.
Still, townhouses and smaller-scale development styles like those outlined in the NJ Transit report are exactly what Mancuso said he would like to see New Jersey Transit build on its acres of parking lots that are the subject of the proposed Red Bank Train Station Redevelopment Plan.
But he surmised that NJ Transit was being pushed to go bigger – in both size and price – by the same forces developer Jim Whelan confronted when he built the $1.1 million garage-with-a-house-on-top at 38 Bank Street.
“I’d like it to just be rows of townhouses,” Mancuso said of the train station zone. “But unfortunately, New Jersey Transit doesn’t see it that way. And they don’t see that value in it either.”
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
