Is New Office Building Viable?
A new proposal is being touted as the first commercial development in more than eight years.But where is the context? On a recent walk on Park Avenue, this writer saw a number of signs advertising office and retail space downtown.
Paramount Property Assets has any number of such opportunities and the yet-unnamed Park-Madison building still has vacancies.
For sure, the developer of the new proposal for West Front Street claims he has guaranteed tenants, so maybe he is ahead of the game. One minor issue is that he still does not have council approval to acquire the two city-owned sites necessary for the project.
These sites were formerly promised to Heartstone, a developer that wanted to put 12 condos on the two city-owned sites. Even though the site was cleared at city expense, it ended up being a city-designated pocket park after Heartstone bailed.
A new legal notice describes the plan to create up to 50,000 square feet of office space in a four-story building at the West Front Street site, with the applicant, Front Street Offices LLC , represented by the law firm of Weiner, Lesniak, hoping for a hearing at a Jan. 15 Planning Board meeting, 8 p.m. in City Hall Library.
However, due to glitches in the Jan. 1 appointment process, it is not clear that the Planning Board will be ready to hear the application.
Meanwhile, the same outfit under other names published somewhat incomplete legal notices for other projects that deserve close attention. Never let it be said that this company lacks imagination.
None of the notices give the corporate names involved, but a spin through the tax assessor's books link the companies to the Jersey City developer.
One Park Avenue site where the company wants to place retail use on the ground floor and four residential units above is called "Certified Green Property One LLC."
Another, "Next Step to Collins Avenue LLC," is a Park Avenue site where the company wants convert a commercial building into a mixed-use building with an additional floor. That proposal needs a variance for height, but the notice appears to be inadequate in that it doesn't name the developer or the land use board involved.
A most curious notice indicates a plan, "Art Lofts I LLC," to convert a former commercial building and a former auto dealership to a mixed-use development with retail space on the lower floor and 20 residential dwellings on upper floors. It appears to be the former Romond's and Ciarfello's sites. A three-story addition is proposed, but again the notice does not say to whom it is being proposed. And check this: No parking is required in the Central Business District. But you knew that, right?
Plaintalker will endeavor to keep track of these proposals in 2009 and will welcome any citizen involvement or attendance at meetings to bear witness.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 6:02 PM
5 Comments:
This is the fault of the current admin. All of this is her fault. They caused all these empty buildings!!!!!
Bernice,
Are these shell corporations, or real? Council president Burney and the rest of the council will have to get cracking on this. Any redevelopment must come before the council for resolutions and approval right? First off, if legal notices are incomplete, do they not count, in terms of proper notice? How do we find out who the principal players are in these limited liability corporations? I like the idea of artist's lofts, it has been proposed for many, many years in Plainfield, but how do we get around the parking? And I don't know of any artists who can afford a condo (most are "starving") in this eceonomy.
New construction/development right now is total insanity.
From today's New York Times:
"Vacancy rates in office buildings exceed 10 percent in virtually every major city in the country and are rising rapidly, a sign of economic distress that could lead to yet another wave of problems for troubled lenders.
"With job cuts rampant and businesses retrenching, more empty space is expected from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles in the coming year. Rental income would then decline and property values would slide further. The Urban Land Institute predicts 2009 will be the worst year for the commercial real estate market 'since the wrenching 1991-1992 industry depression.'"
If Dornoch can't get the senior center/condo building up on time and the units sold with the kind of financial breaks the city gave in that land sale...development of either more housing or more commercial units ANYWHERE IN PLAINFIELD is dead on arrival. Just go look at the brand new (high quality) empty units in Fanwood, Garwood and Cranford all along North and South Avenues.
You don't even have to be political about this one, it's the economy. Stupid.
Barbara Kerr
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/business/05real.html
It's fairly common for developers to give each project a name as a limited liability corporation (LLC)so that nobody can go after all their assets in case of litigation. I just thought the names were kind of interesting.
Bernice,
It is a fraud, a smoke screen, the big lie. Why? Election time or self-deception? This is the death groaning of a political caste that is self-destructing. Bye-bye.
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