Ironstate Development Co. and The Alpert Group have broken ground on Harvard Printing, a 128-unit rental community at 550 Central Ave., near NJ Transit’s Highland Avenue train station in Orange.

The four-story building will house 70 affordable and 58 market-rate rental units ranging from one to three bedrooms. The JV will also redevelop an Art Deco building standing on the property into a 160-car parking deck.

Alpert Group president Joseph Alpert was first introduced to the property in 2006, and by 2008 forged a partnership with Ironstate to acquire the property. Its initial development plans were shelved by the recession, but over the next nine years, it worked with Monarch Housing and the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority on alternatives for development proposals. The JV finally received approval from the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency to move the project forward last year.

West Orange Mayor Robert Parisi said in a statement he believes the buildings Harvard Printing is replacing and repurposing have been abandoned since he was a child.