The once integral centerpiece of Secaucus’ downtown scene, the Acme supermarket on Paterson Plank Road, is now a site of vacancy and construction as residents await the arrival of another big-name store to take its place.
The new tenant slated to move in, a CVS store that will occupy approximately 60 percent of the space, had construction permits issued in August 2004. Rumors have been circulating around town that the CVS was planning to pull out due to the costs associated with revamping the foundation. But according to CVS spokesman Michael DeAngelis of CVS Inc.’s headquarters in Rhode Island, the company is “doing whatever it takes” to get the building ready for its targeted move in date.
“As of right now, we are on scheduled to move in sometime this spring,” said DeAngelis. “We should be in there by late March or early April.”
Work has been going on to stanch the problematic flooring inside the building. With the structure dating back to the early 1950s, the foundation did not utilize in-ground pylons like the neighboring buildings adjacent to it. Those buildings came much later and by the time of their construction, problems with the ground’s water table were more clearly understood.
DeAngelis would not verify or deny the type of work being done, nor would he disclose specifics about the associated costs. When asked about the problems faced by the previous tenant and issues regarding the soft ground and building’s foundation, DeAngelis indicated that there was nothing “unusual” about the work going on inside the building.
Concern over CVS’s commitment to the landlord, Oster Realty Corporation of Englewood Cliffs, and obligations required to render the space safe for employees and customers have spread to many residents in town.
According to Frank McCormick Sr., a longtime Secaucus resident, the building was poorly constructed at its onset and has had problems ever since.
Because of Secaucus’ close proximity to the Hackensack River and adjacent wetlands, many parts of the town are subject to issues involving the rise and fall of the ground’s water table as it fluctuates with the rise and fall of river and wetland tides.
“The whole town really has issues regarding the high water table,” said Secaucus Construction Official Vincent Prieto, “but it’s not up to me or the town to tell the owners they have to rebuild, as the town cannot be liable for privately owned properties. I know that they have been in there every day trying to fix the problems.”
McCormick reported that construction workers have been pouring crushed rock into the floor by the truckload, and said that at one point the old Acme store had to bring in a construction crew to drill holes into the floor and inject a liquid into it to make it less wobbly.
“I remember when there was nothing there at all,” said McCormick last week. “There was just a long 54-inch diameter pipe used for draining the plaza that ran straight north all the way out into the Meadowlands. We’d walk on the pipe and pick the wild huckleberries that grew out there. But then they started developing the area, and once they put that building in during the 1950’s, it was a disaster from the start.”
The CVS store originally was slated to move into the building in the early part of this month, but it appears the site will not be ready for at least a few more months. Calls made to Oster Realty Corp. were not returned.