Apartments on diner owners’ menu

Rendering by architect Russell Bodnar This is what the “St. George,” a 60-unit rental apartment building, will look like.

By Ron Leir

EAST NEWARK –
A desolate piece of real estate will give way to a luxury rental apartment building in this borough, now that the Planning Board has given its blessing to the project.
The four-story, 60-unit “St. George” will rise at 400 Passaic Ave. on an empty site previously occupied by a garage and a cement materials storage facility.
IDVG Realty – comprising members of the Golemis family, who own and operate the nearby Tops Diner – will build and manage the property.
With the area zoned for mixed-use commercial/residential, another developer put up five two-family homes just east of the vacant lot some eight years ago. The Golemis brothers – Van, Jimmy and John –got the green light June 2 from the Planning Board to build the rental apartments.
“George is my father’s name, and in Greece, there is a St. George,” Van Golemis explained, “so we chose that as the name for our project.”

To read the full story, see this week’s issue of The Observer.

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