The Jersey City Planning Board granted preliminary site plan approval for a Target store at its meeting a week ago Tuesday night.
The retail outlet store, the first one to be built in Hudson County, will be located at 100 Fourteenth St., a location presently occupied by the Foodmart International grocery store and group of smaller shops.
“We propose renovating the store itself and adding more to the building for a 32,600-square-foot project,” Charles Harrington, legal representative of the Target Corporation, informed the Planning Board. “This will include new landscaping and plaza parking.”
Project engineer Jeff Lanza noted a number of site improvements Target would be making to the building. According to Lanza, the six loading bays, now visible from Fourteenth Street, would be relocated to the back of the building.
“A small sidewalk will be added to Fourteenth Street to allow for more pedestrian traffic,” Lanza stated. “New fixtures for lights will also be added.”
Lanza said the building was remaining essentially the same, but Target would completely gut and rebuild the interior.
Board Commissioner Jeni Branum noted that a few spots in the ceiling of the building showed signs of decay. Harrington assured the board that repairs to the structure would be thorough.
Branum also raised the issue of reduced parking spaces in the reconfiguration plan the corporation had submitted. Branum noted that the present home of Foodmart International had undergone expansion since it was first constructed in 1993.
“The projects keep getting larger and the number of parking spaces keeps getting smaller,” said Branum, adding the original number of parking spots was 893 and is now approximately 700.
Lanza replied that municipal law required 570 spots and that the project would provide for 684 parking spots.
“Target Corporation would prefer more parking,” said Lanza. “Landscaping, however, will take up some of those spots.”
Lanza added that new landscaping would include trees placed at different points in the parking area in an effort to improve the aesthetic qualities of the lot.
“There will be trees in the parking lot to keep from looking like a vast, open expanse,” Lanza said.
Scott Jackson, project architect, said renovations for the proposed retail store would be done in two phases. The first would be the reworking of the store’s interior, followed by exterior work and landscaping.
According to Jackson, the Fourteenth Street site would be the first Target store to have a new exterior, making it distinctive from its counterparts nationwide. The proposed store will have two large front entrances, Jackson explained, surrounded by landscaping and the exterior finish will be gold tinted, compared to the shades of red other Target stores have.
Harrington said the project is expected to generate between 175 to 200 jobs and begin construction in the summer.
“The store should open in 2004,” Harrington said.
Other business
In other business, the board granted preliminary site plan approval to the rehabilitation of a building located at 81 Montgomery St.
Al Burr, a partner in a firm planning to renovate the Montgomery Street location, was seeking a “C” variance. Such a variance from the Planning Board would allow the roof of the four-story building to be raised from its present 53.6 feet to 69 feet.
Ronald H. Shaljian, Burr’s legal representative, said the purpose of the roof extension would be to allow for seven dwelling units instead of six Burr would like to put in the building.
“We would utilize attic space already in the structure, along with the raised roof, to add the apartment,” said project architect Martin Dassa. Dassa added that the renovated building, first constructed in 1885, would have four two-bedroom units and three one-bedroom units. Currently, the location houses two businesses on the first and second floors and apartment units in the rest of the building.
Attorney Andrew Brewer, representing the commercial tenants in 75 Montgomery St. next to 81 Montgomery St., spoke as an objector to granting the “C” variance. With the raising of the roof of 81 Montgomery St., two windows at 75 Montgomery St. facing the other building would have to be closed off.
“This will cut off sunlight to the office workers by those windows,” Brewer informed the Planning Board.
Brewer asked Dassa if any plans had been drawn up without the raising of the roof, to which Dassa replied in the negative.
“That was something we never considered,” said Dassa.
The board approved the variance and the preliminary site plan by a vote of 7 to 0, with an abstention by Branum.
According to Commissioner Leon Yost, the Planning Board was also scheduled to review plans for the construction of new public schools at Ocean Avenue and Grand Street. However, officials from the Jersey City Board of Education put off their presentation in order to collect more information.
“The review for School 20, on Ocean Avenue, concerned the parking lot,” said Yost. “The review of School 3 on Grand Street would deal with the entire campus the board wants to build.”
Michelle Alonso, principal planner with the Jersey City Division of Planning, said the school construction reviews may be heard at the March 11 meeting of the board.