From the Jersey Journal:
Hoboken sets vote on redeveloping 15-block area
By BONNIE FRIEDMANThe City Council is expected tonight to designate 15 blocks in the southwestern portion of the city as an area in need of redevelopment – the latest in a string of new redevelopment zones.
The vote comes one day before the state Assembly is likely to vote on a bill that would significantly curb the power of municipalities to take private property.
But Mayor David Roberts said the 13-acre area – bounded by Paterson Avenue and Observer Highway to the north, and Jersey City to the south and west – would likely meet the more stringent criteria.
The 31 properties within the area comprise a mix of industrial and commercial uses, surface parking, stacked car storage, vacant lots, two residences and a holding area for police horses and other animals.
Roberts said the city will look to create mixed-use commercial and residential, improve the streets and sidewalks, and add trees and open space.
But unlike another longtime redevelopment zone in the northwest, Roberts said the city will not look to award the entire 15-block area to a single developer, choosing instead to encourage individual property owners to develop smaller sites.
Gee, whiz -more new development in Hoboken & heavens to betsy is in the part of Hoboken with the old junkyard, and the Projects and about 10 blocks from the PATH station…
The good things is those party happy types that buy the 1 mill condo in Hoboken, will have very rapid access to their mood altering albeit illegal substances, which provide employment for our IQ & work challenge members of society.
By the way, when they start digging up the junkyard – they might find Hoffa’s body…
Where in the name of God are they going to find buyers??? The place is one big open house every weekend and there are for sale signs on every block – multiple signs on some houses. Talk to a relator and they will tell you the places are just not moving. Some of the real estate offices have up to 200 condo listings. Not to mention that Hoboken sellers are as greedy as can be.
Cut the margins and undercut the current sellers.
grim
Among the 50,000 reasons you wouldn’t want to live there, add:
1. it is the geographic low point of the entire area – resulting in pooling water, and given the cliff to the west, the high ground at the river to the east, the choking traffic from the Holland Tunnel approach, trains, and simple local congestion – ummm – YECH!
2. the will also be no parks; green space will be limited to places such as the roofs of buildings, and patches of sidewalk
Agree chicagofinance…That particular area is more prone to flooding than other parts of Hoboken.
Residents fought long and hard to get this land dedicated to parks.
I live at Jackson and 1st and agree that this area needs some green space becuase every lot is being built on but the more housing they dump on the market, the quicker the crash comes. Poor people trying to resell in Sky Club are going to get screwed.
The air quality is really bad back in there – at least your street has trees.
Sky Clubbers are already getting screwed…have you looked at the number of listings in the building? And the asking prices are all over the place. It’s messy already.
The Sky Club was just a bad idea. Everytime I pass the place it looks like a ghost town yet they just opened some posh gym to the public that’s asking over $100 a month for dues.
Sky Club was illegal.
Sandy Weiss [who sold out to Toll] did not have the proper zoning variances. It was originally called 101 Marshall, yet somehow it managed to get built anyway. He also built it too high, a second violation, but no one punished him.
Steven’s did the same thing with the parking decks of the Babbio Center.
Utter sleaze.
When I was growing up in Hoboken people who valued their way life stayed away from Marshall Drive. Stepping foot in that neighborhood was unheard of. I still find the area unappealing and I’m always amazed when I hear that people are moving to Jackson Street.
chicagofinance said…
Sky Club was illegal.
Sandy Weiss [who sold out to Toll] did not have the proper zoning variances. It was originally called 101 Marshall, yet somehow it managed to get built anyway.
If you know anything about Hoboken you know exactly how they managed to get this done without the proper zoning.
I’m a resident of Jersey City Heights so I’m very familiar with the area in question—it is quite a pit. Now it is a pit with a lot of “luxury” condo buildings. During the day it’s fine, but after dark, I would not feel comfortable being out on the streets (and I’m a guy!). I have walked to the Hoboken terminal in the morning from my apartment in the Heights which is often faster than waiting for and taking the 87 bus. But there’s no way I would walk home from Hoboken after dark. I actually had a Hoboken cab driver tell me about someone whose throat was slashed in an episode of gang violence on that Mountain Road (that steep 1-lane road going from Paterson Plank Rd (near the light rail tracks) to Franklin Street in the Heights. While this may have been heresay, I do know that gang violence has been an increasing problem in Jersey City and they have a presence in the Heights.
And guess what they’re building in the place of that old wharehouse on Paterson Plank road (that they’re now tearing down)? Luxury condos! Who’d a thunk it? They even have a website (www.manhattanplacerealty.com).
Good luck selling them.