Drugs, gangs, and gunfire were frequent occurrences at the troubled property. The design of the existing buildings, with common hallways and stairwells, made the buildings difficult to manage. The overall site layout poorly connected the buildings to each other and the surrounding neighborhood blocks, providing little distinction between the front and back, resulting in a lack of orientation from both within and outside the site, creating an oppressively homogeneous and indefensible environment.

The social distress of Oakwood Plaza became detrimental to the quality of life and economic value in the surrounding neighborhood.
 

In 2009, the property was put up for sale by the prior owner, and, encouraged by the City of Elizabeth, Community Investment Strategies (CIS), purchased Oakwood Plaza with the goal of replicating the very successful HOPE VI revitalization of the Elizabethport neighborhood, where CIS was the designated developer. The acquisition was the first step of a major revitalization of this project and was a joint effort between the City of Elizabeth, Union County Improvement Authority, and CIS.
 

CIS, working in close coordination with its design and development team, which included Kitchen & Association and Maser Engineering, met with residents, local stakeholders, and city officials, to gather important information about the existing project and discuss various approaches to the redevelopment and its impact on the residents and neighborhood. The original plan was to demolish all 6 buildings and rebuild low rise town-over-flat apartments and reduce the overall density of the site. To accomplish this, a large part of the funding would include DCA subsidy of $20 million. Due to budgetary constraints, however, only $4 million in DCA subsidy was realized. This caused a substantial funding gap and sent the team back to the drawing board.