The end of the year is always an appropriate time to review the previous year or look forward to the upcoming year. After sorting some of the photos from the previous year, I’ve organized a slideshow of the images from 2015 on the latest project under way.

Among my goals for the blog is to document the changes accompanying redevelopment, so here’s a slideshow of construction photos from 2015 of the 115-unit Meridia Lafayette Village, from what I think is the most prominent angle: the corner of Main and Monroe streets. The rental project is expected to be completed this year.

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I try to take photos from more or less the same location (yes, Harvey Keitel’s character in “Smoke” is my inspiration, and if you know the film, there’s something very analogous about documenting change in downtown Rahway).

The 2008 image seems like ages ago but was the start of the predecessor to Lafayette Village predecessor (more on that below).

Another angle I found interesting to document is from Main Street at the corner of East Milton Avenue, though it didn’t strike me until the project progressed higher (thus, only two images):

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You can find an overview of the project — and a wicked cool before/after slider — in this post from July. But here are a few other things to know about the Meridia Lafayette Village project and site:

• The first concept plan was revealed four years ago, in January 2012 as a 120-unit project called Meridia Chateau.
• Even before that (probably about a decade ago!), the site was slated for a 36-unit condominium project, The Savoy — until the housing market collapsed and naked steel girders adorned the site for several years.
• The redevelopment agreement stipulates that the developer will pay a development fee of $100,000: $25,000 when the redevelopment agreement was executed and $75,000 when a permanent Certificate of Occupancy is issued.
• The project was delayed to some extent in 2013 due to state Department of Environmental (DEP) approvals which resulted in some modifications on the Dock Street side.
• Lafayette Village will be the third project completed in Rahway by Capodagli Property Company, after Meridia Grand (completed in 2010 and sold in 2011) and Meridia Water’s Edge (completed in April 2014). The Linden-based developer also has plans to build the 489-unit Meridia Brownstones at the former Wheatena and Quinn & Boden sites along Elizabeth Avenue.