Many drivers using the Park Avenue and Willow Avenue bridges from Hoboken to Weehawken wonder about an oddly-shaped building that is climbing between them in a corner of an otherwise empty plot of land.
As reported here previously, Hoboken-based developer Mark Settembre managed to buy the small corner of the vacant land in 2007 even though the city of Hoboken intended to build a park in that area. He is erecting a private house for himself that offers views of the both bridges, the New York skyline, the light rail tracks, and the rest of a vacant lot that may someday become a Hoboken park.
When questioned in the past, Hoboken officials declined to say whether they had accidentally missed that section of land during their quest to purchase the area for a park.
Settembre is a principal owner of URSA Development, which is developing housing in the northwest area of Hoboken. He separately purchased the small plot of land at 1600 Park Ave. for $135,000 in December of 2007. He says he intends to live there himself.
In 2006, the city of Hoboken had bought several acres of land at that site using state open space grants. The city – either intentionally or inadvertently – did not purchase that portion, leaving the lot for Settembre to scoop up in 2007 under the business cover of a limited-liability company, 1600 Park Ave LLC.
“I built it to live in it.” – Mark Settembre
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House, but no park
Now Settembre’s four-story home is nearly finished and the would-be park sits next to it, overgrown and not any closer to completion than before.
Settembre received zoning approvals from both Weehawken and Hudson County to build the house. The area is considered by Weehawken a “Special Waterfront District zoning district,” and is reserved for public access to the waterfront, recreation, commerce, or light industry. Thus, Settembre needed variances in order to construct a residential building. He was granted them by the Weehawken Zoning Board of Adjustments on April 22, 2008.
Confronting rumors
Recently, rumors have floated around saying that Settembre will sell the house to New Jersey Transit for an office, or to some other entity once it is built.
But turning the residence into an office complex isn’t happening, Settembre said last week.
“No. I built it to live in it,” he said. “It’s at the north end of the park, if they ever build the park. I like the isolation it provides, and it slows down traffic coming through there.”
The 7,500 sq. ft. house will have three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, an elevator, and enclosed parking at ground floor.
“I heard rumors about the Rockefeller Group [buying it],” he said. “It’s nonsense.”
The Rockefeller Group has bought several plots of land in northern Hoboken to develop in the future.
Settembre said he hopes to have the house finished by Thanksgiving so that he can host family there for the holiday.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.
Zimmer asks whether developer violated campaign laws
Local developer URSA was recently outed as a contributor to two Washington, D.C.-based Political Action Committees (PAC) that sent out flyers attacking now-Acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer in the spring mayoral elections.
According to reports, IRS records show that Michael Sciarra, principal of URSA development group, gave $49,976 on May 1 to the “Citizens for the Future” PAC.
Through URSA, Sciarra and his partner Mark Settembre gave $25,000 to the “Building America Committee” PAC on May 27.
Using direct mail and television commercials, both PACs called out Zimmer for raising taxes among other things.
Now Zimmer is wondering whether URSA violated Hoboken pay-to-play regulations that limit how a contractor with the city can donate to a candidate for office. Those who donate a certain amount are not supposed to get city contracts in the near future.
The question is, does donating to a PAC instead allow them to get around those laws?
“There may be pay-to-play issues,” Zimmer said, adding that the city’s Law Department will review the matter.
Hoboken’s pay-to-play reform was passed in 2007, with the help of People for Open Government (POG). Last week, Hoboken POG President Eric Kurta said he doesn’t see a violation in this case, although he’d rather that people who want to get a message out to the public use their name as opposed to creating a PAC to serve as a front. Kurta said the ordinance doesn’t forbid developers from speaking on issues without pushing for a candidate.
In this case, the PAC ads slighted one candidate, but never asked the public to vote for any one candidate.
“There’s no mention of an election whatsoever,” Kurta said of the ads.
Sciarra responded last week by saying, “We have worked in the community for over 25 years and truly love Hoboken. We believe that economic development that provides affordable housing, green space, parks, recreation, retail as well housing is crucial to the future of all urban areas especially Hoboken and will continue to support that vision both on a state and local level.”
He maintained that nothing illegal occurred in funding the issue-oriented messages, as he called them.
URSA, who regularly partners with Tarragon, owns 10 acres of land along Hoboken’s western edge. The city appointed Tarragon/URSA as the developers for the site several years ago, but local community activists filed a lawsuit and a court demanded the city reconsider its actions. Now the city will have to re-appoint URSA/Tarragon to redevelop their own land or create a plan and bid for a new developer.
Zimmer said she is also concerned that the city’s planning firm responsible for designs of the western edge redevelopment zone may have been working closely with URSA and ignoring public input for the site. She plans to ask the city planning firm to reconsider public comments already collected and represent the plan for the western edge to the public.
Zimmer said she will also ask a local redevelopment specialist to do a public presentation on the redevelopment process to give residents a better understanding of it. – TJC