From Brewing Jobs to Luxury Lofts: The Ballantine Redevelopment and the Future of the Ironbound
by Justin Ribeiro
Site Description:
The Ballantine brewery is located in the Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey. There is a lot of history behind this brewery; it was open from 1840 all the way to 1972, once the brewery closed when the controversy began. Over 2,300 jobs were lost in the final year of operation, leading to a major gap financially and psychologically in the town that still has not fully recovered. The industrial era of the Ironbound has been slowly declining which also led to unemployment and disinvestment into the community. In the present day the Brewery has been demolished, the land has been cleaned up from all the soil and water pollution and a 280 unit mixed use building has been built. As new mixed-use buildings rise, residents fear that gentrification will not only inflate property values but also erode the Ironbound’s cultural identity and working-class roots. Is the Ballantine redevelopment going to cause more private investors to buy more old factory footprints that are no longer in use and redevelop those facilities as well? If so, what does this mean for the minorities of the community who have low incomes and would not be able to afford living in the area anymore? Does every industrial building have to be turned into apartment buildings or are there other uses for those buildings that could be more beneficial to the community? Redevelopments of factories shouldn’t lead to minorities not being able to afford to stay in their neighborhood.
When revitalization fuels displacement: The Ironbound’s new skyline, at what cost?
On a chilly March morning in 1972, 2,300 workers walked into the Ballantine Brewery located in Newark Ironbound for the last time. The large brick complex which once represented the industrial pride and economic stability of the neighborhood has finally closed down. Ironbound laborers are seeing their long-standing work routines that once defined both their work and their neighborhood come to an end. The machinery would fall silent by the end of the day, marking not just the closure of a brewery, but the end of an era for a neighborhood built around industrial work.
This led to the downfall of Newark. The change happened so rapidly that workers were left unemployed, with no similar jobs available, contributing to an economic decline. As the years passed the Ballantine Brewery was demolished and turned into an industrial park for other companies, but that idea did not go as planned. Not as many companies came to the park as expected, which led to the site becoming vacant once again. The next time and final time the Ballantine site was purchased was in 2019 when Shorewood Real Estate acquired it and partnered with Bridge Investment Group to turn the site into a mixed use redevelopment.
Mayor Ras Baraka and the policies that he has implemented since becoming mayor is one of the reasons investors like Shorewood Real Estate bought large footprint sites like the Ballantine. The Mayor has said everything he does is to make life better for the residents of Newark, but is that really the case when residents are still feeling nervous about the chance of displacement. What is the Mayor’s focus, is it the people of Newark and their living conditions or is it changing the perception of Newark compared to neighboring cities like Hoboken and Jersey City? Although the mayor of Newark claims to be controlling gentrification, his office is giving incentives that result in Luxury apartment redevelopments which are not equitable for long term local residents and result in displacement.
This paper will begin by explaining the impact Ballantine Brewery had in the community prior to its closure and how that welcomed the idea of large-scale revitalization in the community. From there, the focus shifts to the neighborhood itself, from the demographic patterns to the concerned residents who fear displacement will occur as a result of these new projects. The analysis then turns to policy changes from the Mayor’s office, which includes zoning changes that accommodate larger building envelopes and tax incentives for developers who buy vacant or abandoned lots. Within this context, the lack of affordable housing from phase one of the Ballantine redevelopment has caused concern within the community. Finally, due to these concerns phase two of the redevelopment has been put on hold until community needs are met. Together, these sections will show the trajectory of the paper and how the Ballantine redevelopments showcase inequality in its transformation of the Ironbound.
Background section
As the Ballantines closure affects the local residents, some may question what led to the closure in the first place. According to the New York Times, in 1971 the brewery lost 3.2 million dollars in the year’s first 9 months. This drove investors to sell the company and start investing in real estate. The brewery was then sold to Falstaff Brewing Corporation who will give around 600 jobs in sales to Ballantine employees.
Investors of the Ballantine kept the site in hopes of being able to turn it into an industrial park, which as mentioned earlier did not go to plan and was a short-lived project.
The Ballantine site being acquired and proposed to be a mixed used redevelopment should not come as a surprise, as there have already been multiple abandoned factories turned into housing projects. The more notable projects would be the Murphy Varnish Lofts on 225-239 McWhorter St, and the Textile Lofts on 120 Green st, both of these are located in the Ironbound as well. The Ballantine is a more notable project compared to the previous two I mentioned due to the size of the building, with Phase 1 being a 280 unit project while the other two projects combine for less than 200 total units. These redevelopment projects are all part of the Mayor’s plans to revitalize the city.
Ironbound has been known for its mixed demographic, which includes a majority immigrant community. This demographic has stayed roughly the same through many different historic events. The industrial era was coming to an end in the city of Newark prior to the 1967 riots. Due to those riots it accelerated the process of companies leaving the area, leading to 1,300 manufacturers leaving in the 60s alone. The Ballantine Brewery was the nail in the coffin to the industrial era when they closed just five years later. Unfortunately, this led to a poverty rate in Newark reaching its peak in 1980 with an astonishing 32.7 percent. In the 1970s Newark only had a 6.5 percent unemployment rate, and in just one decade that percentage rose to 13.4 percent, nearly a 7 percent increase.. This shows how industrial decline directly destabilized the neighborhood’s economy, which in turn led to long term lot vacancies and no new investment opportunities coming into the community. Over the next three decades, unemployment rose steadily, peaking at 17.4 percent in the 2010s. This is due to lack of replacement jobs in the industrial field.
The community is fighting to have industry return to the city of Newark to increase employment opportunities, instead of luxury apartments, due to having over 50 percent of the residents in the Ironbound being immigrants, who are tied to industrial labor.
Section Three
As new redevelopments continue rents and property values will rise, which puts long term residents in danger of being pushed out the neighborhood. A resident of Newark spoke at a council meeting, in which he said “We’re giving these folks (developers) tax credits, and we’ve bent over backwards for these guys, and it hasn’t benefited Newarkers.” This resident has a valid reason to be upset at the redevelopments like the One Theatre Square which put aside 24 units for affordable housing, and had over 700 people apply for these units. Ras Baraka, the current mayor of Newark, who has been in office since 2014, claims to be fighting for equitable growth and to keep Gentrification out of the city of Newark. His hopes are that this would help protect the low income residents. At the same time he expresses how crucial bringing redevelopment projects to the neighborhood will be, so the city can collect more money to be able to redistribute the wealth in a more balanced way.
Mayor Baraka is also trying to combat gentrification in other ways besides redevelopment projects. He is implementing policies like strengthening rent control, so private home owners and developers of these complexes can not raise the rent past a certain level. Other policies would include the inclusionary zoning ordinance, selling city owned homes at a lower cost and by creating an office that solely focuses on affordable housing for residents of Newark. These policies have a lot of promise in them to truly be helpful for the community, but that’s just not the case for a few of his policies. For example, his plan to take vacant city seized properties and sell them to residents who have lived in Newark for five or more years is not as realistic as residents hope it to be. The idea behind this is to increase the homeownership rate in Newark, which is far below average for a city in New Jersey. Ras Baraka and NACA (Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America) are selling these properties for $1 each to qualifying lottery winners. Though there is a catch: you have to live in the home for a minimum of 10 years after purchasing the property. If buyers move out early or violate the terms, the city can reclaim the property. Prior to buying the home you have to be pre-approved for a NACA mortgage and go through home-buying counseling with the group. So far this doesn’t seem unreasonable for a one dollar home, but the real issue is that these homes are not ready to move in. A person who buys this type of property would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to renovate or build a new home, which is not equitable for a low income family.
Equitable housing is not just a want by the community, it is a necessity for them. If they would like to stay in their neighborhood and watch it revitalize like Mayor Baraka is wanting, then affordable housing has to be a number one priority. As much as redevelopments have flaws, they are essential to raising the equity of the city, which would help raise values of the homes in the area. Not only would these developments give equity to the city, but it will help in revitalizing the area, which will attract more business to come to the neighborhood as well. This has a domino effect because bringing jobs back to the area will help lower the unemployment rate. It will also give residents the incentive to stay, in doing so it will cut down on their commute to work.
Section Four
As Newark welcomes a new era to the city which is in the mixed use redevelopment phase, there are some controversies that come with it. One of those being a tax abatement that incentives developers to come into Newark and buy abandoned property and turn it into luxury apartments like the Ballantine redevelopment. Through Newark’s tax abatement program, developers are granted long-term reductions in property taxes in exchange for redeveloping vacant or underutilized land. Rather than paying standard property taxes, developers make Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs), which lower operating costs and improve the financial feasibility of large projects. These incentives are often justified as necessary to offset high construction and remediation costs, which deals with the removal of contaminated soil & water pipes on former industrial sites, but they also allow luxury developments to proceed with substantial public concessions. Take the Ballantine for example, this project was developed with the tax incentives in place and with the new inclusionary zoning framework in place but the developers still did not follow the requirements correctly which ultimately affected the residents of the Ironbound.
As of 2018 Ras Baraka created a new zoning policy that is supposed to help create affordable housing from new redevelopments. In this zoning policy it allows for an increase in the maximum height for new buildings, it encourages developers to create mixed use buildings, and it also includes the inclusionary act which requires new buildings with 15 or more units to put aside 20 percent of units for affordable housing. This is the policy council members were divided on approving as the final vote was a 5-3 favor in passing the policy. Critics of the zoning changes stated that “even the units labeled affordable are still priced out of reach for many Newarkers.” Other residents are worried about the change in identity for the neighborhood and how putting up all these residential buildings may cause even more of a parking crisis for the existing residents. While these criticisms highlight the policy’s shortcomings, supporters argue that the zoning changes are intended to leverage large-scale development as a means of increasing the city’s affordable housing stock. To make sure the developers provide the affordable housing they are required to on site rather than off-site, they are fining developers $180,000 dollars per unit that is off-site to the city’s affordable housing funds. By requiring developers to provide affordable units on-site or pay a large fine, Mayor Ras Baraka’s administration has sought to expand access to housing opportunities that low-income families would otherwise be excluded from, which helps combat gentrification to an extent as well. Poverty level/low income families who live in housing provided by Section 8 will have the opportunity to live in new developments which provide improved building maintenance, amenities like retail stores on the ground level and other beneficial spaces like a gym. This situation also promotes socioeconomic integration by placing households of different income levels within the same residential environment.
As noted earlier, the Ballantine is not the first mixed-use redevelopment the Ironbound has seen in recent years, but it is the first to incorporate affordable housing. Earlier projects such as the Murphy Varnish Lofts and the Textile Lofts were both approved prior to the inclusionary zoning ordinance being put into place. Due to this both redevelopment projects did not include affordable housing in their buildings. If not for the inclusionary zoning act change, more redevelopment projects would have followed that same pattern. The Ballantine still attempted to get out of providing the full 20 percent affordable housing, by proposing a whopping 5 percent which of course got denied. Although the zoning changes state 20 percent to be given, the owners of the Ballantine redevelopment and the Mayor’s office were able to negotiate up to 12 percent which is still under the requirement but they agreed to contribute in other ways to best help the community. This is a main reason why the community is hesitant about redevelopments, because the main question still stands “who are the redevelopments truly benefitting?”
As phase one of the Ballantine project came to an end and began renting out apartments in January 2025, owners wasted no time planning phase two of the redevelopment. As the year went on owners went to council meetings and in October they went to present phase two. This redevelopment will contain 525 units with 105 units (20%) to be for affordable housing. For the amount of apartment units the site will have only 300 parking spaces, with just 204 designated for tenants and the remainder reserved for a proposed grocery store. Residents voiced their pleasure at community meetings about the number of spaces compared to the large number of units this project would provide knowing there is already a parking issue happening. Phase 2 is also facing backlash for the quantity of each unit type of affordable housing, for its lack of reflecting the communities needs. The ironbound is approximately 70 percent family households, and in the affordable units the Ballantine would provide there are only twelve three bedroom units, while providing 42 studio, 41 one-bedroom and just 10 two-bedrooms. After hearing this proposal, a local resident spoke of his concerns by stating “the lack of three bedroom units are not family friendly… he also suggested to increase the number of affordable units, have more two- or three-bedrooms, and also make a commitment to the market rates to accept a certain amount of section eight vouchers.” These concerns by the community is what ultimately led to the approval of phase two to be put on hold until owners of the Ballantine redevelopment received feedback from the community. This is a result of the owners actions, during phase one they never held a community meeting like they were supposed to, which led to them going under the 20 percent affordable housing requirement. Now in phase two they gave the full 20 percent, but the unit breakdown is a clear indication they were focusing on the economic standpoint more
then helping the community. When 70 percent of the community is family households and you provide majority studio and one bedroom apartments, that’s a clear sign you did not think of the long term residents and how those apartments would not benefit them nearly as much as if there were a majority two and three bedroom ratio for affordable housing. People who would benefit from the high amount of studio and one-bedroom units would be newcomers who are moving to the area due to nearby transportation and a lower market rate apartment compared to neighboring cities. That last sentence is what the community is primarily fighting against.
While the developers have proposed affordable housing units priced at 40, 60, and 80 percent of Area Median Income, the majority of these units are studios and one-bedroom apartments, limiting their usefulness for long-term residents with children. If your family does not qualify for the 40 percent AMI, and are in the 60 to 80 percent range then your rent for a two bedroom could range anywhere from $1,700 to $2,000 while a three bedroom would range from $2,000 to $2,700. The community expresses concern over these prices as the monthly median gross rent in the Ironbound is $1,600 which is lower than the majority of the affordable housing prices in the Ballantine.
Fast forward a few months to December, to where Shorewood real estate and KSS group professionals held a community meeting at Hawkins school. Community members came and expressed their desire to have a larger amount of units for affordable housing in these new developments due to the amount of low income residents in the neighborhood who may get displaced. As stated in an article by Tapinto Newark, Jennifer Porter, the land use counsel representing Ballantine EFG Property Owner LLC, requested that the Central Planning Board adjourn the application to its Feb. 23 meeting. The board approved her request. The meeting was originally scheduled to happen in December.
Conclusion
On a chilly March morning in 1972, 2,300 workers walked into the Ballantine Brewery located in Newark Ironbound for the last time. The Ironbound lost more than an employer, it lost the economic foundation that held generations of working class families together. This led to the disinvestment of the neighborhood which contained poverty for residents, unemployment and abandonment in buildings. Today, the Ballantine site once again stands in front of a major transition, which symbolizes Mayor Baraka’s push towards revitalizing Newark into an area with mixed-use redevelopments and a new modern urban identity. Although this sounds like a good idea, the transformation still raises an unsettling question: whether revitalization has truly corrected the inequalities created by industrial decline, or simply replaced them with new forms of exclusion tied to income and housing access.
This paper has shown how Newark’s redevelopment strategy, particularly under Mayor Ras Baraka, has relied on zoning changes, tax abatements, and private investment to revitalize the city’s former industrial land. While these policies are framed as tools for equitable growth, their outcomes in the Ironbound have been uneven. There were earlier projects such as Murphy Varnish Lofts and Textile Lofts that avoided affordability altogether, which allowed for newcomers to enter the area. Even under the inclusionary zoning ordinance, the Ballantine redevelopment failed to meet the full 20 percent requirement in its first phase. Community responses to Phase Two further reveal the limits of these policies, as residents voiced their concerns over rising rents, inadequate parking, and the lack of family-sized affordable units in a neighborhood dominated by working families compared to the non-family oriented affordable housing that dominates the majority of the 20%. Although the city has taken steps to require on-site affordability and discourage off-site substitutions, negotiations that reduced affordability requirements and allowed luxury development to proceed have weakened public trust and reinforced fears of displacement.
The struggle unfolding in the Ironbound reflects a broader challenge facing post-industrial cities across the United States: how to pursue redevelopment without erasing the communities that endured decades of economic decline. For example Gowanus Brooklyn is a community that has faced gentrification as old industrial sites are being turned into mixed use residential redevelopments. Gowanus has already seen a change in its demographic from the industrial era to the new redevelopment phase, which Mayor Baraka is trying to avoid. While mixed-use development has the potential to generate jobs, raise equity, and attract new businesses, it cannot fulfill these promises unless affordability and community needs are treated as central priorities rather than secondary compromises. The resistance to Phase Two of the Ballantine redevelopment showcases that Ironbound residents are not against revitalization itself, but to a plan that benefits newcomers over long-term residents. As Newark continues to redefine itself, the future of neighborhoods like the Ironbound will depend on whether redevelopment can move beyond symbolic inclusion and deliver housing stability, economic opportunity, and equity for the people who have long called the city home.
1 Sullivan, Ronald. “Newark Losing Ballantine Plant (Published 1972).” nytimes, March 4, 1972. https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/04/archives/brewery-is-sold-to-falstaff-which-will-keep-brand-ballantine-sold.html.
2 “Hope Ends for Many as Ballantine Closes Its Doors in Jersey (Published 1972).” nytimes, April 1, 1972. https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/01/archives/hope-ends-for-many-as-ballantine-closes-its-doors-in-jersey.html.
3 Williams, Junius. “The Rebellion in Newark.” New Jersey Monthly, July 7, 2017. https://njmonthly.com/articles/historic-jersey/the-rebellion-in-newark/#:~:text=The%20white%20population%20had%20been,community%20and%20at%20city%20agencies.
4 Astudillo, Carla. “10 Maps That Show Newark’s Dramatic Change since the Riots.” nj, July 14, 2017. https://www.nj.com/news/2017/07/how_newark_has_changed_since_1960.html.
5 “North Ironbound, Newark, NJ Household Income, Population & Demographics | Point2homes.” point2homes, September 2025. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/NJ/Essex-County/Newark/North-Ironbound-Demographics.html.
6 Panico, Rebecca. “‘Newark Must Not Become Another Brooklyn,’ Baraka Says after Announcing Commission on Gentrification | Newark, NJ News Tapinto.” Tapinto Newark, December 6, 2018. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/newark/articles/newark-must-not-become-another-brooklyn-baraka-says-after-announcing-commission-on-gentrification.
7 Galvin, Gaby. “Newark, New Jersey, Sells Residents $1 Homes to Fend off Corporate Property Buyers.” Smart Cities Dive, March 1, 2024. https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/newark-nj-sells-residents-1-homes-fend-off-corporate-property-buyers/709028/#:~:text=The%20program%20has%20a%20few%20strings%20attached:,each.%20The%20homes%20aren’t%20exactly%20move%2Din%20ready.
8 Strunsky , Steve. “Newark Adopts Controversial Zoning Changes Encouraging Development.” nj, November 4, 2023. https://www.nj.com/realestate-news/2023/11/newark-adopts-controversial-zoning-changes-encouraging-development.html#:~:text=Apartment%20buildings%20with%20ground%2Dfloor,of%20reach%20of%20many%20Newarkers.
9 CLiME, Rutgers. “Mayor Baraka Proposes Changes to Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance in Order to Create Additional Affordable Housing.” Rutgers Law School Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity, March 16, 2022. https://www.clime.rutgers.edu/news-articles-filtered/mayor-baraka-proposes-changes-to-inclusionary-zoning-ordinance-in-order-to-create-additional-affordable-housing#:~:text=Newark%2C%20NJ%2DMarch%208%2C,Newark’s%20leadership%20in%20housing%20innovation.
10 Zanchelli, Nicole. “‘This Is Not for Us’: Phase Two of the Ballantine Development Slammed for Not Prioritizing Newark Families | Newark, NJ News Tapinto | Tapinto.” Tapinto Newark, November 25, 2025. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/newark/sections/development/articles/this-is-not-for-us-phase-two-of-the-ballantine-development-slammed-for-not-prioritizing-newark-families.
11 Zanchelli, Nicole. “‘This Is Not for Us’: Phase Two of the Ballantine Development Slammed for Not Prioritizing Newark Families | Newark, NJ News Tapinto | Tapinto.” Tapinto Newark, November 25, 2025. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/newark/sections/development/articles/this-is-not-for-us-phase-two-of-the-ballantine-development-slammed-for-not-prioritizing-newark-families.
12 “North Ironbound, Newark, NJ Household Income, Population & Demographics | Point2homes.” point2homes, September 2025. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/NJ/Essex-County/Newark/North-Ironbound-Demographics.html.
13 Zanchelli, Nicole. “Vote on Controversial Phase Two of the Ballantine in Newark Adjourned to Feb. 23 | Newark, NJ News Tapinto | Tapinto.” Tapinto Newark, December 4, 2025. https://www.tapinto.net/towns/newark/sections/development/articles/vote-on-controversial-phase-two-of-the-ballantine-in-newark-adjourned-to-feb-23.
Primary Sources:
- Second Development Phase to The Ballantine in Newark Delayed Pending Community Input by, Nicole Zanchelli published October 7th 2025
This source talks about the community’s input on redevelopment decisions. It shows how the Ballantine Brewery’s redevelopment is controversial and low income residents are worried about gentrification/ displacement.
2. “New Jersey DEP Brownfield Site Remediation — P. Ballantine & Sons Brewery Parcel Reports”
Link: https://dep.nj.gov/srp/brownfields/
This source shows a different element to my topic, with how industrial factories like the Ballantine leave behind some type of mess like soil pollution or water contamination. Due to this before construction could start for the redevelopment the soil and water had to be cleaned up not toxic anymore.
3. “Ballantine closing ends Newark era”
Newspaper – New York Times published March 12th 1972 by, Joseph F. Sullivan
This showcases how the economy and community was affected by the closure of the Ballantine. It also gives a perspective in real time when the brewery was closing down, and how that was the start of a decline in the Ironbound.
4. “Newark Workers React to Brewery Closure”
Link: https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-marshfield-news-and-wisconsin-hub/5142/
This was interviews from workers and you are able to see the emotional toll it took on some of them.
5. New plan for Newark’s industrial core aims to cut pollution, support job influx
This shows the government’s point of view on how they say redevelopment will be beneficial to Newark. Shows how the government is trying to transition from the industrial era to a more sustainable area but the question still stands if it is more beneficial for private investors or for the low income residents of the Ironbound.
The article I chose talks about Phase two of the Ballantine redevelopment, which is a proposed seven story 525 unit residential building, which will have a grocery store. This project has been put on hold by the Newark Central Planning Board due to needing input from the community. The developer showed the plans to the board but the board decided to adjourn the project to allow for more resident feedback. This article talks about how the local authorities and the Ironbound community are currently engaging in the redevelopment of the Ballantine site. This shows how the community is hesitant with having these mixed use buildings coming to the area because it will slowly drive out the low income residents and change the whole demographic of the Ironbound.
This article shows how the ICC(Ironbound Community Corporation) represents the community at hearings, to make sure the community’s voices are heard. Phase two has been put on hold due to needing more community input revealing that the planning board recognizes the need to pause and re-engage with residents before proceeding. A clear acknowledgement that redevelopment must incorporate community voices rather than steamroll them. Lastly, the specifics of the project “a seven-story, 525-unit residential building with a supermarket” adjacent to the earlier 280-unit development on the Ballantine site. Phase two highlights the scale of change envisioned for this former industrial footprint, emphasising how major this transition is for the Ironbound neighbourhood. Together, these pieces of evidence support the argument that the Ballantine redevelopment is at a critical juncture where community inclusion, housing equity, and long-term resident protection are being tested.
Secondary Sources:
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Displacement of Lower-Income Families in Urban Areas, Office of Policy Development and Research, 2018 https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/displacementreport.pdf
This is a government report that talks about gentrification and the rise in rents in low income neighborhoods.
- Brad R. Tuttle, How Newark became Newark “The rise, fall and rebirth of an American city”, Rutgers University Press, 2009 https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9780813546568_A49478669/preview-9780813546568_A49478669.pdf
I will be using this book for its information on the origins of Newark, to its decline socially, economically and politically, and other information as well.
- Strunsky, Steve. Newark adopts controversial zoning changes encouraging development. NJ.com, 2023.
I will be using this article to talk about the zoning changes made and what those changes do for residents and for developers.
Image Analysis:
Data Analysis:
My site is a Brewery factory redevelopment located on 80 Freeman st, in the Ironbound section of Newark New Jersey. My site once at its peak employed over four thousand people before closing in 1972, and now the land has been bought and the old brewery was knocked down and rebuilt into a mixed use housing building. The main problem I’ll be focusing on, is how turning abandoned factories into mixed use redevelopments may be beneficial to the investor but can cause problems like displacing low income residents and changing the cultural identity of a neighborhood. I applied a .1 mile circular buffer around my site to give as accurate numbers as possible due to the other factories and types of pollution in Newark that could cause my numbers to be inflated or inaccurate. If the Ballantine redevelopment is deemed a success will we see more private investors buying property and contributing to the gentrification of the Ironbound?
The environmental data that I was able to collect that surrounds my site showcases some serious environmental burdens. The redevelopment shows extreme proximity to superfund sites, with a score of 7.47 sites per kilometer distance, placing the surrounding area in the 97th percentile in the state. Being so close to superfund sites causes long term contaminations in the soil, air and even the water quality. Due to these conditions when redeveloping the site they had to clean the soil and water before going through with the construction. Wastewater discharge was a big contamination from the brewery but over the years and during the cleaning process of the redevelopment the water discharge has put them down to the 61 percentile.
Here is my EJSCREEN Data 
This data shows how the ironbound community faces social burdens as well as heightening the risk of displacement of the long term residents in the area. 61% of the local residents are low income, almost half the households in the area are limited English speaking, unemployment rates are more than double statewide averages, and the high percentile of people with less than a high school education. This is important because education level directly affects job access, income stability, and the ability to navigate complex regulatory or environmental information. When redevelopments bring new high waging jobs to the area the residents with little education will be excluded from these opportunities, which will hold residents in the low income field instead of getting a chance to get out of that.
83% of residents near the site speak a non-English language in their household, with 67% speaking Spanish. Around 60% of the residents are considered to be latino or hispanic. The demographic that is mostly affected by the pollution and gentrification is the hispanic and latino community. Combined with high poverty (61% low-income), 13% unemployment, and 31% without a high school diploma, the data shows a community with major barriers to accessing environmental information, health services, and stable employment. When redevelopment projects like the Ballantine property raise economic activity and increase housing demand, these longtime residents who have endured decades of industrial pollution are the least equipped to stay.