Hoboken’s emergence as one of New Jersey’s most popular destinations is about to be cemented even further with the anticipated announcement that a major luxury hotel chain will be coming to the southern waterfront.
According to city officials, a deal is almost in place for the only plot of undeveloped land left in the three-parcel Southern Waterfront Redevelopment site.
The Southern Waterfront Redevelopment, which runs from First to Fourth streets along the waterfront, is a mixed-use project that is the product of a partnership between the city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (see sidebar).
As per a 1980s agreement, the land was divided into three parcels or blocks. The southernmost block is home to the Waterfront Corporate Center, which is being developed by SJP Properties, a Parsippany-based commercial builder. It will ultimately include two 550,000 square foot office buildings – a total of 1.1 million square feet of office space. One tower is already occupied by John Wiley & Sons and other tenants. The other tower is currently under construction and Marsh & McLennan Companies, a leading financial services firm, has signed a long-term lease for 450,000 square feet.
On the northernmost block, commonly referred to as Block C, a residential building at 333 River St. recently opened. The building was constructed by the Applied Companies in partnership with Starwood Heller, LLC. Applied, one of the major players in the area’s apartment market, is now filling its $100 million E-shaped building, which offers 526 studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units and over 60,000 square feet of street level retail.
That only leaves the space in between, or Block B, to be developed. The city has effectively decided to divide Block B into two sections.
According to the soon-to-be-amended redevelopment plan, which was introduced at Wednesday’s council meeting and requires another vote at a future meeting, the site’s developers will be allowed to build a 450,000 square-foot office/commercial building that can rise to 175 feet (between 10 and 13 stories) tall in one section. According to City Business Administrator Robert Drasheff, that portion is similar in size to one of the 13-story towers in SJP’s Waterfront Corporate Center.
The second aspect of Block B, according to Drasheff, will be a 260-room hotel that will take up to 200,000 square feet and can be up to 160 feet, or approximately 10 to 11 stories.
The city is currently negotiating to divide Block B between SJP and the Applied Companies with Starwood Heller. According to Drasheff, although the deal is not yet signed, it is proposed that SJP would build the office building portion and that Applied and Starwood Heller would build the hotel. Drasheff added that the city has requested that it be a luxury hotel. “The city has requested [that] the developers bring the W Hotel franchise, although as of right now nothing has been sealed,” said Drasheff.
The W Hotel chain is owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, based in White Plains, N.Y. Starwood Hotels and Resorts operates other hotels including the Sheraton, St. Regis and Westin chains. Starwood Hotels is not related to Starwood Heller.
Representatives for both SJP and Applied declined to comment on the status of the current negotiations.
Council proposes 32 percent reduction
At Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, the governing body introduced an amendment to the redevelopment plan with the goal of reducing the size of the buildings and the apparent mass of the permitted buildings on Block B.
In the original redevelopment plan from 1995, the designated developer would be able to build a 950,000 square-foot development on the block. If the ordinance passes in the council as expected, the developer will only be able to build a 650,000 square foot development, which represents a reduction of approximately 32 percent.
The amendment will also allow for enlarging the east/west visual corridor, which will result in open space on both the north and south ends of the blocks. In effect, the amendment narrows the envelope in which the buildings can sit. So on both the north and south side, there will be a 30-foot wide space that will be used as open space and provide a better view and more light to the inner city.
The amendment also provided for more glass to be incorporated in the façade, which according to City Planner Elizabeth Vandor will give the appearance of a less dense building.
Councilwoman Carol Marsh said Thursday afternoon that she thinks the changes set forth in the amendments are positive. She said that she likes the idea of the extra glass features and that additional open space and reduced density are beneficial to the public.
City Council President Ruben Ramos said that more glass and less masonry will “make the building appear less bulky and a little sleeker.”
The one giveback that was given to the developer in the amendment is that the developers may now build the hotel 160 feet tall where before they could only build to 125 feet.
Ramos contended that it is worth it to receive two new areas of open space and lower overall density.
“To get something, you have to give something,” he said.
The councilperson who has the biggest concerns about the proposed changes is 1st Ward Councilwoman Theresa Castellano. She was not in favor of allowing the height of the hotel to grow, and she worried that more glass in the building would not fit in with the historic nature of Hoboken’s architecture. Castellano is the chairperson of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
Vandor responded that it is important that the building in the southern waterfront looks “distinctive but compatible.” She added that it is important that the redevelopment area doesn’t look like a single project.
Drasheff said Thursday that these amendments do benefit the public. “The public felt that it might have been a little too dense,” he said. He added that when finished, the completed southern waterfront will be a huge boon for Hoboken. He said that it is an excellent source of economic development that will produce hundreds of jobs. He also said that the developments will produce over $5 million a year in Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) that will go directly in the city reserves, and that the developments will pay about $750,000 annually to maintain the waterfront walkway and Pier A Park.
The only member of the public who commented on the ordinance was Ron Hine, the executive director of the Fund for a Better Waterfront, a local special interest group. “I’m very disturbed by what I saw tonight, because we forgot about any kind of public process,” said Hine. “We were left out in the dark.”
He said that local groups with a vested interest should have been informed and a public hearing should have been held before any decision was made.
The public hearing and final vote on the amendments is scheduled for the next City Council meeting on Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. in City Hall.
A short history of the Southern waterfront
In the mid-1980s, the New York/New Jersey Port Authority, at the request of the city of Hoboken, performed a feasibility study of a major section of the waterfront. The study suggested that the land be used for a balanced mix of housing, office facilities, retail and consumer services, and research.
The piers were still owned by the city and leased and maintained by the Port Authority in accordance with a 1952 lease. However, in May of 1988, a termination of the lease was negotiated. At that point, City Hall and the Port Authority entered into new negotiations to further develop the site.
Two attempts by City Hall and the PA to encourage development there were rebuffed by the public in referenda in 1990 and 1992.
In a proposed 1990 deal, the city and the Port Authority, which was ready to invest $125 million, planned to build six 150-foot high residential buildings and one 250-foot building on the 30-acre southern waterfront site that included the piers next to the Erie-Lackawanna Train Terminal. The plan failed by 12 votes.
Two years later, a deal that called for developing half of the site failed by a vote of 5,547 to 5,316. In both cases, critics said the plans were too large and too inconsistent with the character of Hoboken.
After both of the amendments failed, Mayor Patrick Pasculli’s administration created the Hoboken Waterfront Corporation and tapped various segments of the community to work out a new plan. The Waterfront Corporation was made up of 15 officials and local residents, including opponents of the past plans.
The new plan, developed after scores of meetings, largely rectified the problems that had polarized the community.
In 1995, the plan was finally unveiled during Mayor Anthony Russo’s term. The approved project provided for a 300-room hotel, 1.1 million square feet of commercial development, a 500-unit residential development, and parks, rather than buildings, on Piers A and C.
The city released requests for proposals from private developers to build on the three-block site according to the plan. The Port Authority pledged to contribute more than $80 million by upgrading the surrounding infrastructure, including road improvements, the renovation of the five acres of Pier A Park, and the completion of the stretch of the riverfront walkway that connects Pier A Park to Sinatra Park, all of which are now completely open to the public. – Tom Jennemann