A City Council vote Monday set the stage for rehabilitation of the former Mirons furniture warehouse for condo development.The building had been part of the North Avenue Redevelopment Plan and was slated for much more ambitious construction, but the economic times being what they are, the developer sought to rehabilitate it instead. Click here for an earlier Plaintalker post on the subject.
The building gained the nickname "luxury condos" from a prior development proposal which failed. It is now owned by a subsidiary of Landmark Development.
There are several other Landmark acquisitions within the North Avenue and North Avenue Extension development areas. The administration of the late Mayor Albert T. McWilliams placed economic development activities under the deputy city administrator, but since 2006 the director of Public Works and Urban Development has been in charge. From 2006 through 2009, Jennifer Wenson Maier was the department head, but was not reappointed. Readers may recall that the new appointee, David Brown II, did not come on board when Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs began her second term on Jan. 1 of this year. Instead, Wenson Maier stayed on until taking a job in Hoboken. Brown had not been expected until April 1, but took office in early February.
By now, Brown has had time to become familiar with the state of various proposed projects in the city. Perhaps at a future City Council meeting, he can provide the governing body and the public with an update on economic development. Or alternatively he could meet with the council's new Economic & Committee Development Committee and the committee can report to the council and public.
At one time in Robinson-Briggs' first term, there were a dozen or more economic development proposals in the works. Many have fallen by the wayside, but those remaining deserve close attention. Another committee, Administration & Finance, has suggested that the city return to the model of having a deputy city administrator in charge of economic development. The post has been vacant since the end of 2005.
--Bernice Paglia
I have an idea...rush it through...stare in awe at the unbelievable dog and pony show being presented about people willing to pay $400,000 for a condo in Plainfield, approve everything...review it all at the end when it's almost complete and then accept the circumstances that it looks half-ass and say, maybe next time we will look at the plans and hold the developer responsible. And lets not forget...ON STREET PARKING !! Oh YEAH !!
ReplyDeleteOh...wait a minute..that's how it's done. Never mind.
Don't confuse economic development with any old development. Plainfield is too reliant on its residential base and our focus should be on developing the infrastructure and initiatives to attract commerce and industry that provide well-paying, skilled, employment opportunities.
ReplyDeleteI have this nagging vision of reopening Muhlenberg Hospital (perhaps not in all its now-mythic glory, but adequate for most general purposes) in conjunction with creating lab space and R&D facilities on campus and around Plainfield that would attract the likes of UMDNJ, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers.
But whatever the vision, the guiding watch-words ought to be 'Careers, not Condos'! I don't know that we need more housing, not when there seems to be one or two homes for sale on every block in virtually all neighborhoods. If you can obtain a mortgage, there's something for people of all income levels right here, right now. What there isn't are jobs, at least not very many with any long term prospects.
Remember though that we are overly reliant on residential real estate to pay the city's ever-increasing freight of property taxes. Without the growth of the commercial side of things, this problem will only be exacerbated, and the increase of new housing supplied, all else equal, may only drive down the value of properties that already exist. The point being that any new housing plans should be matched by new jobs creation plans. Else it's like that story about the lipstick and the pig.
Who is going to buy a luxury condo in the wild, wild west known as Plainfield. Pay all that money so you can deal with the run down area and fear being shot. They can't even sell the condos on Front Street, which is in a better area, how will they sell condos in this area. I hope our idiot mayor isn't putting taxpayer money into this debacle.
ReplyDeleteWell said Bob!! and of course, we will hear the same old song about the "mixed" use retail that will go along with the condos. Translation: Another $1 store comes to Plainfield, or, let's get really creative about bringing in business, A NAIL SALON!! We are certainly a thriving and diverse city!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe city should pursue developing IT offices in the area around the railroad station. Many banks are developing satellite IT offices in the surrounding NY area ... far enough away not to be vulnerable to a NYC attack, cheaper than NY, yet close enough to interact with the business people in NYC.
ReplyDeletePlainfield has a perfect location for something like this. Example -- Citigroup has a huge campus in Warren.
Why not court a large bank to turn downtown Plainfield into an IT campus? It would only bring money into town. No addition to school or other services. IT offices = educated people who would want to eat lunch, shop, get their car serviced, etc.
But alas, all "development" people think about are developing retail stores with apartments overhead. If you had IT offices -- that would drive demand for business to come to Plainfield.
What has Brown offered to Plainfield. His presence and presentations to the Council are fluff. Gotta give him credit though...have all the tough questions answered by his worker bees. They're the ones who know what's going on. So much for an expert in redevelopment. By the way, how about we redevelop his attendance record.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't noticed the entire administration is incompetent. They are only concerned with their well-being.
ReplyDelete