One is Municipal Parking Lot 9, which extends from the corner of Central Avenue and West Second Street and jogs north to West Front Street. The other lot is at the corner of West Second Street and Madison Avenue.
"Cut your deal with the City Council before you come to us," Planning Board Chairman Ken Robertson advised the team that includes Wendell Martin of Matrix Real Estate Group, the Plainfield Housing Authority and the Plainfield Community Development Corporation.
Martin said an appraisal of the property had been completed and negotiations with the governing body will begin soon.
Planning Board members had many other questions in the session Thursday, regarding the project's effect on affordable housing numbers, emergency access to the buildings, traffic flow, trash removal, loss of downtown parking at Lot 9, the small size of the proposed one-bedroom units and access to open space for residents.
Presenting themselves as West Second Street Association LLC with the tentative name "Cove Apartments," the team said the $23.6 million project will be financed by a combination of low-income housing credits, NJ HOME, NJHMFA and other sources. Once completed, the mortgage will be $6.5 million, Martin said. He predicted the project would have "tremendous economic impact" on the downtown area.
The proposed 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units will have rents ranging from $850 to $1,550 and each unit will have a washer and dryer and its own "Magic Pak" heating and cooling system. The three buildings will be five minutes from the main train station.
Of the three 6-story buildings, the one on the lower part of Lot 9 would have 67 units. The second one would have retail space on West Front Street and 22 apartments. The third, on the southeast corner of the block, would have 15 apartments and a commercial laundry.
The conceptual hearing was for discussion only and was non-binding on either the Planning Board or the presenters. Planning Director Bill Nierstedt said the small lot was part of a redevelopment plan and might need an interpretation by the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Any future land use application for the project will be subject to the new Transit-Oriented Development Downtown zoning ordinance and to rules governing apartment size in the Central Business District. One-bedroom units must have 750 square feet, while the plans discussed Thursday called for 600 square feet. Nierstedt said that amount fell between a one-bedroom and a studio at 500 square feet, and would require a variance.
The block where the developers hope to build already has a large apartment complex on the Madison Avenue side. On a block just east of the site, developer Frank Cretella has proposed 148 apartments. Most recently, newcomer Mario Camino has announced plans to built three stories of apartments above a former bank building on Park Avenue. Nierstedt said the Planning Division is tracking all the approved and proposed apartment developments downtown.
--Bernice
No more low income housing!!!! Let's get people here with money to spend, and who want access to good restaurants, chic clothing stores and a better quality of retail than is downtown now.
ReplyDeleteNot saying to displace anything that is there now, but it is about time to start bringing in solid middle to upper middle class people to round out the diversity.
Diversity includes all levels of income, all ethnic groups and all races. Let's start seeing that in Plainfield.
The Plainfield ghettoness is far beyond repair. They should have done something about it sooner. Plainfield will never equal Westfield or its surrounding towns.... shoddy stores, the indoor fleamarket, once the sight of Macy's, is disgustingly dirty and stinky. Why would anyone want to come shop in Plainfield much less move?
ReplyDeleteWe are truly a city that loves to hate itself. No good deed goes unpunished and the glass is always half empty. It's no wonder the employers we want here don't come, and those we've had pack their bags and leave. Even the public discussion about the Muhlenberg study at a recent City Council meeting devolves into complaints about the relative color or dress or demeanor of people in an animated video. Sheesh! I'm going to wave my magic wand now and all will be well.
ReplyDeleteI'm ashamed of the anonymous comments above. What a wonderful place we live in, where the only solution is to bring outsiders into the town to "save us". I got news for you. Bringing in people from elsewhere won't give us better quality of life. Good education, good policing, affordable housing, quality medical care and especially jobs, jobs, jobs - that's what makes life better. It's a lot easier to propose bringing in new people that already have decent jobs, but what does that do for US, the people who already live in Plainfield? Raise our rents?
ReplyDeleteThere's no quick fix to real change. If you swap Plainfielders out with more affluent out-of-towners, don't you dare call yourself changing lives. You're only changing demographics and any of the few jobs that are created will be low wage retail and food service work (which would just be replacing the low wage work that already exist throughout our commercial districts). Ask the long time residents, and those who were forced out, of Jersey City and Hoboken how great development improved their living conditions.
If we can create a good education system, why haven't we? If we can create a better Plainfield why haven't we? The fact is, that the government in Plainfield has no vision or leadership. The people in power want to keep things the way they are. Why? They get to keep the power. I say, let's get new blood, new ideas and people who will vote and get those who have done nothing for decades outta here!
DeleteI am very sorry to hear that the person above does not believe Hoboken and Jersey city to be vastly improved. Why do we keep crowing about diversity in Plainfield when we lack economic diversity which is the only thing that can turn this town around. We have many people in Plfd that work hard and fix up these wonderful old homes and yet our politicians do nothing except take the easy way -- more affordable housing, more mixed retail stores that look like junk shops. There is nothing to draw anyone to the downtown unless you are interested in buying drugs or like gang warfare. our schools get more money per student than surrounding areas and yet, the educational quality is abysmal. What teacher wants to come teach, let alone live here. Why not follow some of the best practices of Jersey City and Hoboken and Montclair, everyone ends up winning when you give the opportunity to lift up the entire population. Opportunity is something not offered in Plainfield; how about giving the abandoned warehouses to the artistic community to refurbish and create a stimulating environment, jazz/blues clubs that would draw an audience, a corporate headquarters that would incentivize restaurants, hotels to locate nearby? Why? Because our politicians like it this way, and that is the sad truth of the matter, empty promises and simple greed and no one that will stand up and say , "stop what we are doing and try something else for a change."
DeleteI am the one who made the comment about Jersey City and Hoboken.
DeleteFirstly, I agree with the first comment about getting new blood in there and going things differently. That was exactly my point and I'm glad that you made the conclusion for me. Of course that is the solution!
As for the second anonymous - the conditions for people who ALREADY lived in Jersey City or Hoboken has not been improved at all by the influx of new people.
The fact that you talk about gangs and drugs when you talk about downtown just shows where you are coming from. There are legitimate businesses there - a LOT of the, they just don't serve the people with whom you identify.
Go to the bottom of the list for schools and school districts. You will find Jersey City and Hoboken still there. Go into the neighborhoods that have not been gentrified (there arent many in Hoboken) and you will find the same misery that there always was. Do you know how Jersey City got those big corporations and such in there - the oens that started the renaissance? Twenty years TAX-FREE - they used tax abatements. That doesn't help anyone.
Get on the ground and learn about the big picture because you go and hold Jersey City and Hoboken up as examples to follow. It's exactly what NOT to do.
You couldn't be more wrong. You have the attitude that many have to comments that say this town is a disaster, you know where they come from. Translation: Rich people who live in the historic districts. No one who is rich lives in Plainfield, except perhaps our politicians. We need economic diversity and like the person above, utilize the diversity that we have to draw people in, blues clubs, Latin music clubs, artist lofts in the old abandoned buildings. We lack the desire and imagination and will to change. I've lived here for over 25 years and it has only gotten worse. So sad.
DeleteWho do they expect to move into all these proposed apartments?? There are so many vacant, foreclosed houses and apartments scattered all over Plainfield already with noone moving into them. Their putting the carriage before the horse! Bring in businesses, create jobs and a downtown people actually want to shop in, we need more diversity in businesses no more dollar stores etc. Where's the incentive for plainfielders to open a business?? PMUA rates are outrageous for a commercial property, Rent for a store downtown is crazy with Paramount Assets, you can find a cheaper rent in scotch plains or even along rt 22. Once downtown commercial starts to change and grow then maybe people will actually want to live downtown and rent some of these apartments until that happens they will just end up being low income slums
ReplyDelete...again?.. more apartments..again?
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering about the traffic. You can't get around downtown or on Front Street now, ass another several hundred cars. I also think we need to attract middle class people who have money and maybe we will get some stores that sell quality good and not the junk the down town now offers. The stores at the Park Madison site on Park Ave. are a mess as are many on other parts of Front Street. I've given up shopping down town, as I won't waste my money on junk. Let's look up and not down or straight ahead. I love living in Plainfield and hope it gets better and we move forward.
ReplyDeleteFor the residents of Plainfield.... $8 an hour at Ped-Eze downtown is the same for them as $8 an hour at the Gap.
Deletewell.... Look at it this way.. There is NO WAY the Democrats are going to be able to pull off more than one "successful" project at a time and more than one in an election cycle. Too much graff and hoops to pay, I mean jump through for that to be remotely possible.
ReplyDeleteThen of course you have the "we think green trim would have looked better" so remove it and start all over crowd, then there is the why would I approve your building even after we approved it crowd, then there is the what's in it for me crowd ( hand extended of course ) of one of the more esteemed politicians.. ( by the way I can make the green trim thing go away wink wink ) and finally... we have every developers willingness to put up with the BS that is Plainfield ???
Go ahead.. approve it.. approve it like all the other projects... Blood from a stone.. there hasn't been a dead horse this city hasn't spent its time and money on beating... Market rate and no rentals.. RING A BELL ANYONE ??????? Veterans Center ??? FREE SENIOR CENTER ????
... I don't know about you.. but once this election cycle is over and we roust those shifty, filthy Republicans out of the Mayor's office and off City Council things have got to look better if not the least a slight bit more respectable.
Dear Democrats in Plainfield.. remind yourself.. were it not for the half wits who don't realize you can vote outside the party line none of you would be holding office right now. And of course, I'm sure Bob and Dottie will personalize this message..as they probably should.
JFK Medical Center has been holding meetings with some of Plainfield’s clergy, lobbying them to influence the Plainfield City Council to allow JFK to build 600 rental units and a retail complex on the site of the Muhlenberg Hospital Campus, which closed in 2008.
ReplyDeleteAssemblyman Jerry Green, up for re-election this November, has been a driving force behind this effort, strategizing and injecting his own political influence into city politics by carefully handpicking candidates to run for City Council who favor this effort, most recently, Rev. Tracy Brown. JFK has been lobbying many of Brown’s peers in an attempt to garner support for this project.
Recently, at a Plainfield City Council meeting, Rev. Gerald Lamont Thomas of Shiloh Baptist Church, lobbied by JFK, read a letter to the Plainfield City Council on behalf of the medical giant. The letter was a direct request from JFK to the Plainfield City Council requesting a variance to re-zone the Muhlenberg property, allowing for the development of a 600-unit apartment/retail complex.
JFK, in an effort to sway the vote of the Council and undermine the will of Plainfield residents — in particular those who live adjacent to the Muhlenberg Campus community — continues to strategize to manipulate council members to adhere to requests from local clergy, being passed off as a representative of the local community. These individuals are leaders of their congregations, not representatives of the community-at-large.
It’s uncertain as to why JFK is using local clergy to persuade the city to build “luxury” apartments that would rent for upwards of $1,600 per unit for one-bedroom units, especially when so many of Plainfield’s homes are in foreclosure.
Rev. Lamont, speaking on behalf of JFK, was invited to a block association meeting in the City’s 3rd Ward, which he declined.
Obviously Jerry stands to make money from this, NO rental units and retail...it will be one junk store like the downtown flea market. Thanks Jerry, you really care about the town,
DeleteTo those who say "MORE APPARTMENTS! WHY!" Well I think we need to put ourselves in the developers shoes to understand why choices are being made. Lets face the facts. No higher end retail will come to Plainfield if there are not enough residence to support them. Large retailers do their homework and if the population does not support the revenue requirements of the business they will not move forward. It's not rocket science. No one is going to "do Plainfield a solid" and just open up shop to fail. So yes. It starts with apartments. Downtown, walking distance to the train is ideal to offer a higher grade of living which hopefully will attract commuting tenants. Now you must ask yourself "who will pay more for these apartments"? In my opinion you can't shoot to high or to low. The demographic we need is the commuter who does not want to pay Westfield prices and will see VALUE in moving to downtown Plainfield (just a couple of more stops on the train). This tenant is young, upwardly mobile and is not afraid to live in an "urban environment". Creative types work also and mix well with the other type. Artisits, musicians, chefs, etc... You must creat an environment first. This will be a slow and steady course for sure but it starts with the dwellings themselves. I believe the town does recognize this need which is why the apartment size requirements were created in the first place. They want to avoid more SRO style apartments. Once we reach a point where the population can support the businesses, they will come. Not before. Now if the powers that be would concentrate on incentivising large companies to come into town creating more jobs we could really have something. Innovative companies in tech, farming, green technologies, energy, etc... Who is championing these efforts?? WHO?! Seek them out and maybe then we will have a plan that would work.
ReplyDeleteIf the developers of these apartment buildings in downtown Plainfield do not also provide the basic small business attractions that the Yummies (Young, upwardly mobile) crowd is looking for they are not going to come to here. When they get off the train there has to be somewhere to go other than home. After living here for nearly 15 years expecting things to start happening, I am dismayed that no one has figured out how to do what so many nearby towns have done recently. Look at Fanwood. They have built a nice environment around the south side of the train station that is not fancy or extensive but is attractive to the Yummy crowd. Plainfield has to provide a compelling case for them to ride two more stops on the RVL.
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