Basking Ridge New Housing Developments: Plans and Buyer Options
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
Bernards Township has four housing projects either approved, in hearings, or zoned and waiting for a site plan. Together they come to roughly a thousand homes. Three of them sit on land that was built or set aside for offices, and the fourth adds to an existing senior complex. Of all those units, the plans confirm just 60 as market-rate homes for sale without an age restriction. All 60 are townhouses.
That matters for anyone comparing Basking Ridge with nearby towns. New construction can sound like extra choice for buyers. Here, most of the new supply is apartments, age-restricted homes, or income-restricted units. Buyers looking for a detached house in the township will mostly be buying from current owners, just as before.
| Site | What the land was | What's planned | Status as of October 4, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 180–181 Mountain View Boulevard | Wooded tract set aside for two more Mountain View Corporate Center office buildings | 220 rental apartments with 62 income-restricted, plus 60 market-rate townhouses for sale | Amended site plan approved 5–1 on September 8, 2026 |
| Westgate, 477 Martinsville Road | Vacant 250,000-square-foot former Everest Re headquarters | Zoning allows 574 homes with 115 affordable, a 150-room hotel and about 20,000 square feet of other nonresidential space | Rezoned in 2025; no Westgate case on the 2026 Planning Board docket |
| 131 Morristown Road, Route 202 | Largely vacant office complex | Age-restricted townhomes, being revised to 125 units with 25 affordable | Zoning Board hearing carried to October 28, 2026 |
| Ridge Oak IV, 95 Manchester Drive | Land next to the existing Ridge Oak senior complex | 29 one-bedroom age-restricted affordable rentals | Site plan approved May 19, 2026 |
Each site tells you something different about how long new homes take to show up in this township. Each one also tells you what kind of housing is being built.
Mountain View is the project closest to being built, and it's also the oldest. The site was never an occupied office building. It's a 71-acre wooded tract that was meant to hold two more buildings in the Mountain View Corporate Center after the first four went up. As the office market weakened, SJP Properties turned to housing instead.
The township approved 280 homes there in January 2020. The plan called for 220 rental apartments, 62 of them income-restricted, and 60 market-rate townhouses for sale. More than six years later, the earlier owner had left apartment foundations and other site work in place. Patch reported in August 2026 that framing had not yet begun.
The new owner, Amzak Basking Ridge LLC, went back to the Planning Board to update the plan. Its attorney, Tom Malman, told the board the unit count was unchanged and that the project remains a third-round affordable housing development with 60 townhomes and 220 apartments. The board approved the amended application 5–1 on September 8, 2026. Conditions included a more detailed letter from the fire official explaining why the water system design is acceptable.
Those 60 townhouses are the only for-sale homes in the whole pipeline confirmed as market-rate and without an age restriction. They also show the pace of these projects. An approval from early 2020 had produced foundations and no framing by late summer 2026.
Edgewood Properties bought the vacant former Everest Re headquarters at 477 Martinsville Road in 2022. At the time, the site sat in the Westgate Village Mixed Use Senior Overlay Zone. In April 2025, the Township Committee replaced that overlay with a family inclusionary zone, meaning a mix of market-rate and affordable homes with no age limit. The change raised the allowed density from 375 to 574 units, with 115 affordable. It also cut the permitted nonresidential space by about 210,000 square feet, leaving a 150-room hotel and about 20,000 square feet of other uses.
The path there was contested. On March 18, 2025, the Planning Board found the Westgate and Ridge Oak ordinances inconsistent with the township's Master Plan. The Township Committee adopted them anyway in April, and in May it approved the final housing plan 4–1. Committeewoman Jennifer Asay voted no, arguing the plan did too little for senior housing. Mayor Janice Fields said it does benefit the elderly and residents with special needs.
Westgate carries most of the township's state-mandated affordable housing obligation. Bernards settled with Fair Share Housing Center in March 2025 on a Fourth Round obligation of 198 prospective-need units. In the adopted plan, Westgate's 115 family rental units plus 45.5 bonus credits make up the bulk of that number.
Westgate is still a zoning approval, not a project. The township's 2026 planning project register lists Tao, Fellowship, Amzak and Ridge Oak. Westgate isn't on it. The 574 figure is the most the zoning allows, and no one has yet filed a site plan for that many buildings.
The 131 Morristown Road site is the one most people drive past. NJBIZ reported in 2023 that Adoni Property Group had bought the office property. Now an applicant, 131 Morristown Road LLC, wants to tear down the largely vacant office complex and build age-restricted townhomes.
The unit count has moved three times in one year:
One detail from the September hearing is easy to miss. Township representatives said Bernards has already met its Fourth Round affordable housing requirement. The local ordinance still requires a 20 percent affordable set-aside on this development anyway. Asked about the figure, the applicant's planner said, "20 percent is the standard number that provides for an appropriate amount of affordable housing while still providing for a financially viable project." The planner described the project as "independent living for active adults," not assisted living.
The hearing resumes at a special meeting on October 28 at 7:30 p.m., when the applicant is expected to bring revised plans. Nothing has been approved yet.
Add up the four sites and the shape is clear. Mountain View contributes 220 apartments and 60 townhouses for sale. Westgate's zoning allows up to 574 homes, and the 115 affordable ones are rentals. Route 202 would add 125 age-restricted homes. Ridge Oak IV adds 29 one-bedroom senior rentals. None of the four is described in township records or local coverage as a subdivision of detached houses.
The pipeline includes two age-restricted options and several hundred apartments over time, as well as new affordable units. A Patch report in February 2026 said an agreement extends affordability controls on 247 existing Ridge Oak units through October 31, 2072.
There won't be much new inventory of detached homes in any of this. That's why it helps to read the resale numbers with the pipeline in mind. NJ REALTORS publishes town-level data only to members, so the most recent public figures are for all of Somerset County. For August 2026, single-family homes in the county had:
The county's townhouse and condo market moved faster. In August 2026, townhouse and condo inventory was up 53.3 percent from a year earlier, and supply rose from 1.4 months to 2.5. The median was $470,000.
These are county figures, so treat them as background, not a Basking Ridge reading. Still, they point the same way as the pipeline. Attached homes are where supply is growing, both across the county right now and in what Bernards Township has approved for the future. Detached homes in the township keep coming from the existing housing stock.
The township's approval covers 60 market-rate townhouses for sale. As of August 2026, though, apartment framing had not begun, and no construction schedule has been published.
Not yet, as far as public records show. The zoning was adopted in 2025, but no Westgate application appears in the 2026 Planning Board project register or on the July, August or September 2026 agendas.
Ridge Oak says it hopes to start construction late in 2026 and expects building to take more than 12 months. It hasn't set an opening date.
Township representatives said in September 2026 that the Fourth Round obligation is already met. Private applications like the one at 131 Morristown Road can still come forward under existing zoning, and those still carry the township's 20 percent affordable set-aside.
If you're comparing Basking Ridge with Bridgewater, Bedminster or other nearby towns and want to know how these projects fit your timeline, Lee Opperman can walk you through what's approved, what's still in hearings, and what's on the resale market right now. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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