Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth is cutting the amount of new housing planned for Oceanport. An 80-acre stretch of the fort near the Little Silver train station was supposed to become a transit-oriented neighborhood with about 230 homes. It is now set aside for Netflix backlots. The borough's replacement plan restores roughly a quarter of those units, and most of them are scheduled after the studio opens.
So the jobs come on a firm schedule, and new housing comes later and in smaller numbers. If you're comparing Oceanport with nearby shore towns, the homes that already stand here are where most of the competition will happen.
The 80 Acres That Were Going to Be a Neighborhood
The 400 Area is bounded by the NJ Transit tracks, Oceanport Avenue and Parkers Creek. It holds more than 60 old barracks, warehouses and office buildings beside an existing residential street grid. FMERA, the state authority redeveloping the fort, had planned a mixed-use neighborhood there before Netflix arrived in 2021. In August 2025, Oceanport Mayor Tom Tvrdik told The Two River Times that about 50 of the 80 acres are buildable and that Netflix representatives had said the land "will primarily be used for backlots."
That plan is now set. Netflix closed on more than 292 acres on December 5, 2025, for $55 million. The Two River Times reported that Phase 2 calls for outdoor backlots and basecamps on 79 acres of Oceanport's Gooseneck waterfront. About 30 of those acres are designated open space, 47 structures are coming down, and five salvageable buildings near Riverside Avenue will be renovated for reuse.
The borough's own paperwork shows what that does to the housing count. Oceanport's amended Fourth Round housing plan, dated February 2026 and filed in court in March, lists the 400 Area as "the only project that requires an adjustment." It also gives the numbers.
| Units | Notes from the borough plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Original 400 Area zoning | 234 | Included 47 affordable units |
| Lunch Break replacement | 24 | Family rentals in a two-story building on county-leased land |
| HABcore replacement | 25 | Supportive housing, nine set aside for veterans |
| Habitat for Humanity replacement | Up to 8 | Credited toward the borough's unmet need |
| Stated 400 Area replacement credit | 55 | Up to 57 units across all three projects |
The Habitat units aren't on the fort. The plan puts them in four two-family homes at 37 Main Street. The replacements were sized to meet the town's affordable housing obligation. They were never meant to replace the market-rate homes the original zoning would have added, and nothing in the plan does.
The Fort Housing That Already Exists
Oceanport isn't starting from zero on the fort. The same court-filed plan lists three Fort Monmouth housing projects as finished:
- Officer Housing: 116 units, completed, including 16 family rental units and 16 special-needs bedrooms
- Lodging Area: 180 units, completed, including 36 affordable units
- AcuteCare: 81 age-restricted units, completed, including 17 affordable units
That's 377 homes, and every one of them was occupied or ready before Netflix finished its first building. They belong to today's housing stock. A buyer looking at Oceanport in 2027 won't find them as new inventory. When one comes up, it comes up as a resale, the same way any older Oceanport house does.
Two Clocks Running at Different Speeds
Netflix says the final structural beams went onto Stages 3 and 4 in June 2026. Site work started in December 2025 and vertical construction in March 2026. The four-stage Phase 1A on Oceanport's McAfee parcel is targeted for completion in summer 2027. FMERA's 2025 annual report counts the full project at 1,407-plus jobs.
Here are both timelines on one calendar:
| Date | Studio | Oceanport-side housing |
|---|---|---|
| December 5, 2025 | Netflix closes on the fort property | |
| March 2026 | Vertical construction begins | Borough housing plan filed; Nurses Quarters construction "anticipated shortly" |
| June 2026 | Stages 3 and 4 topped off | |
| July 2026 | FMERA approves the Lunch Break redevelopment agreement | |
| January 1, 2027 | Lunch Break construction start deadline, after permits | |
| Summer 2027 | Phase 1A target completion in Oceanport | |
| Fall 2028 | Phase 1B, eight stages in Eatontown, projected | |
| January 1, 2029 | Lunch Break completion deadline |
Two more fort projects are still on paper. Nurses Quarters has planning board approval for 34 units, seven of them affordable. RPM Development Group is the developer, and the plan pairs 24 one- and two-bedroom apartments in reused buildings with 10 three-bedroom townhomes. Barker Circle is zoned for 75 units, 15 of them affordable. In 2021, The Two River Times described Barker Circle Partnership LLC's proposal as 75 two-bedroom rental apartments built inside former barracks. We couldn't find a current public source confirming that construction has started on either one.
Add Nurses Quarters and Barker Circle to the 55-unit replacement credit and the pipeline comes to about 164 units, most of them rentals and not all of them on the fort. None has a confirmed delivery date before the first stages open, and the one with a firm schedule, Lunch Break, has a completion deadline of January 2029.
Where the County Market Already Has Slack, and Where It Doesn't
There's no public Oceanport-only sales report for 2026. NJ REALTORS keeps municipal reports behind a member login. The most recent public data is the Monmouth County report for August 2026, current as of September 9. It works as context, and it shows the two property types heading in different directions.
In August 2026, Monmouth County single-family homes:
- Sold at a median of $815,000, up 3.7% year over year
- Closed at 102.8% of list price on average
- Sat at 2.8 months of supply, with inventory down 4.9% to 1,201 homes
- Drew 633 new listings, down 6.9%
Townhouses and condos tell a different story for the same month. The median was $550,000, down 3.9%. Inventory rose 4.0% to 362 units, and months of supply rose 12.0% to 2.8. Homes still sold quickly, at 26 days on market, and closed at 100.7% of list.
Now put that next to Oceanport's pipeline. The new homes still planned near the studio are mostly apartments and rentals, plus 10 townhomes at Nurses Quarters. The countywide segment with fewer new listings, shrinking inventory and offers over asking is detached single-family housing, and the fort pipeline adds almost none of it. Anyone hoping for a new detached house near the studio is shopping the resale market. Countywide, that market was the tighter of the two in August 2026.
The Storefronts Moved First
Commercial space responded faster than housing. Riverwalk Center is a 12-acre mixed-use redevelopment on Oceanport Avenue from Fort Monmouth Business Center LLC. FMERA's July 2026 update lists Nicols Racquet, Spear Physical Therapy, Skinny Flowers Brewery, Playa Bowls and CKO among the businesses already open there. In March 2025, The Two River Times reported that the site's owners planned to turn historic Allison Hall, a circa 1928 Army hospital, into a boutique hotel. The Allison wedding venue would go into a two-story building on Parkers Creek, and a neighboring one-story building would become Festival Hall, a casual eatery.
In June 2026, Mayor Tvrdik told The Two River Times that Netflix expected to film at the Oceanport campus the following summer. He also said local businesses were reinvesting in their storefronts to get ready for the demand. The businesses got the advance notice and acted on it. Housing supply around them hasn't followed at the same pace.
A Few Questions Buyers Ask About the Fort
Will any of the Gooseneck waterfront stay public? Yes. Netflix's Phase 2 designates about 30 of the 79 acres as open space. In Phase 2B, Greely Field, with its World War II memorial, and Cowan Park are planned as deed-restricted, publicly accessible open space. Netflix, FMERA and Monmouth County were still working out how they connect to the fort's planned walking trail.
When does the 400 Area work actually start? No start date has been announced. As of December 2025, the mayor said demolition permits had been filed for more than 20 buildings in the 400 Area. New Jersey Natural Gas was disconnecting service, and Netflix was removing hazardous materials building by building. Netflix has to go back to the borough's zoning and planning board for any changes to the 400 Area approvals.
Is there a newer market report than August 2026? Possibly by now. When we pulled the figures for this post in early October 2026, the public NJ REALTORS county report list still showed August 2026 as the most recent month. On its monthly statistics page, NJ REALTORS says it uploads the previous month's reports by the 11th, so September 2026 county figures may be posted there now.
Whether you're looking at a fort-era home, an older house near the Gooseneck, or a property close to Riverwalk, it's worth knowing how Oceanport's limited supply affects your price. The Katz Team reads these Oceanport numbers street by street, and a person, not an algorithm, prepares each home valuation. Schedule a call and we'll go over what the studio timeline means for the homes you're considering.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
