What will end up behind the tree line on Vinal Place? At a Monday night Madison Borough Council meeting covered by TAPinto on August 11, 2026, residents of Vinal Place and Ross Court asked for a buffer between their homes and future development on the Drew University campus. They also asked the borough to keep mature trees and to keep vehicle access for that development off Vinal Place. Mayor Bob Conley said a conceptual plan circulating on social media showed what Drew had once envisioned and was not a plan the borough would accept. He said trees, traffic, design and the project's relationship to nearby streets would be settled later, during the Planning Board process.
That exchange tells a buyer something about Madison that the median price doesn't. The borough's supply of new homes over the next decade is concentrated in a few large former institutional and corporate sites. Most of them sit along or near Madison Avenue, and most of what they will hold is attached or multifamily housing. The question of what gets built next door is now in play on specific streets, at specific addresses, in 2026.
The State Did the Math on Madison's Land
Every New Jersey municipality received a fourth-round affordable housing obligation for 2025 through 2035. Madison's prospective need was set at 206 credits. The borough's amended Housing Element and Fair Share Plan, adopted March 3, 2026, argues the number can't be met on the land Madison actually has.
"The Borough does not have enough suitable land to address the obligation."
On that basis, the amended plan filed with the court seeks a vacant land adjustment. It sets Madison's Realistic Development Potential at 101 units and leaves an unmet need of 106. Under state law, a town that gets this kind of adjustment still has to identify parcels likely to redevelop that can cover at least 25 percent of the unmet portion. For Madison, that comes to 27 units.
For a buyer, the meaning is simple. When a built-out town has to produce new housing, it looks to sites that are already large, already off the tax-generating office market, and owned by a single party. The plan's list of mechanisms for its 101-unit target shows this. It includes rental family and supportive units at 1 Giralda Farms, 28 for-sale affordable units at 3 Giralda Farms, and small additions at 28 Walnut Street, 22-24 Belmont Avenue, 30 Central Avenue and a few completed sites. None of those mechanisms is a single-family subdivision. The court index reviewed for this post doesn't yet show a fourth-round compliance certification for Madison, so the plan is adopted but hasn't been confirmed by the court.
The Drew campus arrived by another route. A judgment in Madison's earlier third-round case found that 48.322 acres of the Drew University campus were potentially developable and had to be counted, which pushed the borough to amend its compliance plan. Borough officials said the court approved that settlement in April 2026.
Where the Homes Are Going Instead
Taken together, the sites form a corridor. Here is where each one stands as of September 2026.
| Site | Former use | What is approved or planned | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Giralda Farms | Mostly vacant office building | 281-unit residential building by Madison Urban Renewal LLC, including seven affordable units | Approved by the Planning Board on Monday, Nov. 3, with the approval memorialized March 3, 2026 |
| 1 Giralda Farms | Same campus | Madison Housing L.P. building, amended to 41 affordable units: 23 supportive units plus 18 other affordable units | Amended approval memorialized July 29, 2026 |
| 3 Giralda Farms | Former Quest Diagnostics headquarters, vacant since its July 2020 sale | Up to 138 units, 110 market-rate and 28 affordable | Redevelopment plan adopted March 23, 2026 |
| Drew University Parcels B and C | University land along Madison Avenue | Inclusionary multifamily housing | No development application reported |
At Giralda Farms alone, the two campuses account for as many as 460 homes. The Planning Board approved the 281-unit building by an 8-1 vote. According to The Madison Eagle, several board members called the result a compromise, and board member Carmela Vitale said, "It's not perfect, but it's something that moves Madison forward." The sources reviewed don't say whether that building will be rented or sold, and they don't report construction progress.
3 Giralda Farms Is the Project Most Relevant to Buyers
Among the approved and planned projects, 3 Giralda Farms is the one that most directly adds new homes a buyer could purchase. The fair share plan lists its 28 affordable units as for sale. The January 30, 2026 draft of the redevelopment plan describes the roughly 21-acre site as a townhouse community with a mix of market-rate and affordable homes. It caps impervious coverage at 40 percent and building coverage at 20 percent.
The site's history explains how it reached this point. Mack-Cali developed and owned 3 Giralda Farms, and it served as a single-tenant headquarters for Quest Diagnostics starting in 2007. It was fully vacant when it sold in July 2020. A 2022 plan to reposition it as a Class A corporate headquarters was never carried out. In late 2024, Toll Brothers became the contract purchaser. The draft plan includes Toll Brothers renderings of townhomes, both garage and front facades, along with a stacked multifamily building.
A few details matter for anyone thinking about pre-construction here. The site borders the mostly vacant 1 Giralda Farms office building to the east, a single-family neighborhood along Treadwell Avenue to the west, and dedicated passive open space in Chatham Township to the south. It is about 1.5 miles from the Madison train station and about a mile from Convent Station. The adopted ordinance identifies the property as Block 3303, Lot 1. No 2026 source reviewed confirms a community name, a site-plan approval, demolition or pricing. As of the draft plan, Toll Brothers' role is contract purchaser, and the draft doesn't say whether the market-rate homes will be sold or rented.
Drew's Housing Land Is Planned in Outline Only
The Drew agreement pairs a large preservation purchase with a smaller housing parcel. The borough is buying the 47.3-acre Drew Forest Preserve. The same settlement provides for selling other surplus university land along Madison Avenue for multifamily inclusionary housing, and for the borough to acquire the Madison House property. The purchase price is $23.8 million. About $17.5 million in federal, state and county grants had been secured by June 2026, which put the borough's net cost at roughly $6.2 million. The council approved the bond ordinance on July 13, 2026.
Here is what has been settled so far about the housing side:
- A December 2025 settlement outline identified Parcels B and C, about 4.492 and 3.87 acres, as land Drew keeps for redevelopment.
- On July 29, 2026, the Planning Board approved a campus subdivision into five lots so the borough can take ownership of the forest, the open space and Madison House. The Madison Eagle reported that the subdivision included no development proposal.
- Mayor Conley said the agreement protects the lawn between Madison House and Lancaster Road from development and places future redevelopment farther back on the property.
No unit count, developer or site plan for Parcels B and C appears in any source as of August 2026. Buyers looking at homes on Vinal Place, Ross Court or other streets near the campus are buying next to land that has been designated for multifamily housing, while buffers, access points and building design are still undecided. Those questions will be answered at future Planning Board hearings. Anyone under contract nearby can follow those meetings.
What Morris County's Attached Market Suggests
Madison-specific monthly figures weren't available for this post, so the county numbers serve as context. According to New Jersey Realtors' Morris County report for August 2026, townhouses and condos had a median sale price of $592,500. There were 91 closed sales, 159 homes for sale and 1.9 months of supply, and sellers received 102.9 percent of list price. Single-family homes that month had a median of $843,750, with 394 closed sales, 673 homes for sale, 2.2 months of supply and 104.8 percent of list price received.
In August 2026, the county's attached segment had slightly less supply relative to its pace of sales than the single-family segment, and those homes still sold above asking on average. That is the market Madison's Giralda Farms projects will enter. Since the borough's own plan finds no vacant land for ground-up single-family neighborhoods, a buyer who wants a new home in Madison, rather than a renovated one, is increasingly looking at a townhome or apartment on a former corporate campus.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Madison allowed to build less than its full 206-credit obligation? The amended plan asks for a vacant land adjustment that lowers the working target to a Realistic Development Potential of 101 units, and it addresses 27 units of the unmet need through additional mechanisms. The court index reviewed doesn't yet show a fourth-round compliance certification.
Can I reserve a townhome at 3 Giralda Farms yet? No sales launch, pricing or community name appeared in any 2026 source reviewed. The redevelopment plan is adopted, and a site plan would come next.
Will the Drew Forest purchase raise Madison taxes? Officials expected to borrow about $10.9 million at first through bond anticipation notes, with future Green Acres funding and other revenue expected to reduce the debt over time. How that affects any individual tax bill hasn't been published, and this is not tax advice.
If you're weighing a future townhome at Giralda Farms against a resale home in town, or you're considering a property near the Drew parcels and want to understand what the Planning Board record says about the land next door, Kristina Baez can review the plans with you and help you judge construction quality, timing and long-term value before you commit. Let's Connect.
