The North Bergen Planning Board has given approval to the construction of a seven-story, 23-unit luxury condominium complex on River Road. It marks the third time in the last 14 years that the township’s Planning Board has given approval to a project on the site, located at 8125 River Road, directly next to an existing self-storage facility.
While the other two proposed projects failed due to either a lack of funding or a poor buyer’s market, the developers, Blue Bell Assets of New York, are confident this project will be built and there will be sufficient interest in the homes, estimated to cost $700,000 for a three-bedroom residence to $249,000 for a one-bedroom unit.
The planned unique U-shaped structure will feature a mix of duplex and triplex apartments, some with rooftop terraces.
“I think the Planning Board thought it was a creative and good design,” said North Bergen Planning Board attorney Brian Chewcaskie. “The design was aesthetic and in accordance to other developments down there. I think the Planning Board was pretty tough before giving approval. They made the developers prove their case. Between the initial presentation and the conceptual review, it was a good year and a half worth of testimony.” Part of the reason for the delay in approval stemmed from testimony from geological engineers, who could not determine the amount of blasting that will be needed to remove the rocks from the bottom of the existing Palisades.
“They claim that they may not have to do blasting to get to the rock,” Chewcaskie said. “Blasting was discouraged. But they did need to have several variances.”
Included among the variances were changes in lot coverage, width, depth and for rear and side yards on the steep sloped half-acre lot that has always been vacant.
“They also came in with a 30-unit facility, but we whittled it down to 23 units,” Chewcaskie said. “This was the best design for the land space right after the cliff face.”
The Planning Board first received an application to build in 1989, when a New York firm wanted to build a 35-unit facility on the site, but only received approval after cutting the height of the project from 14 stories to seven. But that project never came to fruition.
Two years ago, a 16-unit townhouse development also received approval from the Planning Board, but that facility was never built either.
This latest project is slated to add more than $10 million to the township’s tax ratable base.
North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco applauded the approval.
“It’s a nice project that doesn’t block the views, yet still enables us to bring in ratables,” Sacco said. “I know a lot of people want to take advantage of North Bergen’s Gold Coast. This is a project that will conform to the rest of the waterfront. I know that the property has changed hands three times, but it looks like this time they will move forward. These properties will give new meaning to the Gold Coast of the township.”
Chewcaskie said the approval of the Blue Bell Assets’ project might be the last one for quite some time.
“No doubt, there are a number of properties that should come to development,” Chewcaskie said. “But we don’t have anything new on the horizon. Everything else we’re considering right now are existing applications. There are no new ones.”