Several palatial former bank buildings, vintage palaces of commerce from back to the early 1900s, are undergoing conversions. In several cases, the developers have pledged to keep the towering columns and high ceilings that were staples of the time when people conducted much of their business there rather than through ATM machines or computers.
“We saved a lot of the old façade.” – Robert Russell
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Banking on condos
The Jefferson Trust Bank building, First and Clinton streets, has been gutted and is in the process of being rebuilt from the inside out. Ultimately, it will become condominiums.
The original building was built in 1909, and rear office space was added in 1919, according to public records. The bank is historic, according to the city registry, and the current owners, 133 Grand Street LLC., want to keep the historic value intact, according to their attorney Robert Matule.
“They’re reverse-constructing it,” he said, meaning keeping its outside shell and large clockface.
Robert Russell of LWDMR & Associates, urban planners handling the conversion, said the building will house 12 condo units and roughly 500 square feet of ground floor retail space.
Two loft-style units will sit above the street-access retail and the other 10 units will stand four stories high in the area behind the original frame. Most of the parking will be included in the building’s first floor rear.
Russell said the owner tried to get city approval to build commercial space and restaurants in the old bank, instead of residential condos. But they were not approved – parking had much to do with it – and decided to instead create homes.
Nonetheless, building inside an old frame isn’t easy.
“[Our goal was to] make everything work inside the space of the old building,” Russell said. “We saved a lot of the old façade. We basically built a new building behind the façade.”
He said the building is also in a flood zone, so they had to elevate the ground floor above flood elevation.
Russell said he also had to deal with parking and environmental issues, not to mention retaining the building’s structural integrity while it was being torn apart. He is happy to keep the skylight above the top floor loft space.
The project drew some criticism at Zoning Board meetings, and nearby residents have complained that the construction has been disruptive.
The principal owner, Seth Martin, was not available to comment.
From mortgages to Motrin
The bank building at 101 Washington St., across from City Hall, is due to become a Walgreens, according to Director of Community Development Brandy Forbes.
Forbes said Walgreens purchased the building and is constructing their store within the established zoning code, which means the company does not need any zoning adjustments and the project was not discussed in public forum.
The Walgreens will be just one block away from CVS at Washington and Newark streets, and some local real estate insiders are disappointed that the building couldn’t be used for something more unique.
Ten years ago, former Mayor David Roberts wanted to turn the building into a community center, a new police headquarters, or some other community related-property, according to one City Hall insider.
The paper business
The Hudson Reporter building, 1400 Washington St., was home to Hudson United Bank until the mid-1980s. The stately building was empty until former Reporter Publisher Joe Barry purchased it in the mid 1990s and renovated it. Barry sold the paper in 1999 (and the building shortly thereafter) to his minority partners after the real estate boom kept him too busy with his residential developments to remain in the newspaper business.
Co-publisher David Unger recalled the conversion of the building.
“It was just a wreck,” Unger said. “We gutted the building.”
Still, they maintained some of the historic architectural qualities and repaired the exterior (including the clock) using old pictures.
In the basement, where two vaults were housed, flooding had stained the walls to eye level. When construction crews came in to remove the large stainless steel vault doors, they found them too monstrous to move. They left them in the basement and enclosed them behind drywall.
Unger said he found some old AT&T stock certificates from the 1960s and tracked down their original owner.
It is suspected that Andrew Carnegie once kept his money in the bank, Unger said, but it is only certain that Carnegie had his fortune somewhere in Hoboken.
He also found some old checkbooks that are still in the building today.
“I could tell you who was in default at the turn of the century,” Unger said.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.