December 2013
A proposal that won preliminary approvals in 2009 is moving along with demolition of the former Romond's Garage to make way for four stores and 20 apartments.
The building has now been largely broken down to piles of girders and timber.
A five-story building will replace the former garage.
Developer Frank Cretella expects to pair the project, known as Arts Loft I LLC, with another development bordering on Gavett Place to create an entertainment center.
The new building will occupy a block north of the main train station and is part of Cretella's downtown plan.
--Bernice
There is not enough parking downtown now as it is. Where are 30 plus cars going to park downtown/ Store owners were told that there were no permits left in the lots close to the train station. we do not need 20 more apartments downtown. We need to clean up the downtown area and fill the many empty stores and empty apartments around town before we let developers build any new units and fill Gerry Greens pockets! Look what has happened to the units above the senior building many are still empty and not enough parking!
ReplyDeleteParking will come in the mean time its exciting to see a developer doing something with all these eye sore abandoned buildings throughout downtown. The courier new building looks great, anyone know when the restaurant will be completed??
ReplyDeleteTo 3:59, there is a huge empty parking lot right in front of the building for people to park in. Any time of the day, the lot is mostly vacant. Quit your complaining. Someone is finally doing something positive and as usual, the Anon people are bitching. The senior building was a great idea, but a horrible location. Would you want to live there? I would not. Not right next to a low end liquor store with people loitering at all hours of the day. Poor planning on everyone's part on this project. Proper planning on Franks part. And show where Jerry is getting his pockets lined. When you have the proof, you can speak, until then, keep quiet. I'm not a huge fan of his, but that is just slander. That's why you didn't sign your name to it. I am however a huge fan of what Landmark is doing and will support him where ever possible.
ReplyDeleteTo 9:29, the restaurant will not come without a liquor license. The city needs to do the right thing and issue and new one or remove one from the rosters where there are multiple complaints and issue it to Landmark. The sooner that happens, the sooner we will see a restaurant like none seen in Plfd before, or at least not in a very long time.
Why do we need more apartments in Plainfield? What does it do for the town? Don't we have enough rental property as it is? Isn't that one of the contributing factors to the decline of life in this town?
ReplyDeleteLeave the renters alone. Damn.
DeleteThe way homeowners talk about renters in Plainfield is highly offensive.
Apartments are not the problem it's the slumlords who suck the money out of them and don't maintain them. Code enforcement is also a joke which is why the slumlords can get away with it
DeleteAnon 12:11 - as usual the negative comments from people always look at things in black and white and no gray area. Are a ton of apartments great for a city, probably not - do we have a ton of apartments - no. Is new development in areas of town that have seen better days a good thing - absolutely. And btw - when you have Transit Village designations and transit oriented development as well as the hopes for continued progress on the one seat ride, new and different apartment developments close to the train are a welcome projected. So lets start thinking outside the box - at least outside the box for Plainfield - every other municipality has been doing this sort of thing for years and eating our lunch in the competition.
DeleteWe need more quality apartments which is something Plainfield does not have enough of. We have plenty of substandard housing choices throughout the City. Many unchecked by inspections over the years, many illegal, many overcrowded, many with violations and safety hazards. Many illegal rooming houses up and down Front Street, but not enough quality rentals.
ReplyDeleteFrank is building a quality product. Gut renovations making them all new, or in the case of the Jeep dealership, all new construction from the ground up. This will give people a new option to move into the downtown area into something they can be proud of.
Once rentals succeed, and the market turns around, (this will take a few years for Plainfield), the sales units will follow right behind them. This analogy does not apply to the Muhlenburg site. Too many units and too far from the trains. So while it seems like we are getting more of the same, it is far from what exists here now. Dont get me wrong...there are many nice rentals in the city, but just not many like this. These will attract people who have moved away and want to come back to live in something new as well as people from out of town who want to be near the trains.
Who will want to rent an apartment across from a train station on one side and a parking lot where bums drink and hang out? Where are they and their visitors all going to park? The parking lot across from Ramond's Jeep is all parking meters or permit only parking. We need more parking downtown. The County Democrats promised us all who live and shop in downtown Plainfield that we would be able to park in the garage at Park Madison nights and weekends, They Lied to us all. Developers and Old Democrats never seem to keep their promises to Plainfielders.
ReplyDeleteTo 1155... you don't get out much do you?? Commuters with good jobs and money to spend. That's who. They will have parking permits and the visitors will pay the meters or, are ya ready for it?? Take the train. The bums will have to find another place to drink and hang out. Its called gentrification. You fix things up and things then change. Something a few Plainfielders seem to be afraid of. Maybe the county didn't want bums hanging out and drinking in the parking garage?? Maybe the City needs to fix up the parking lots that they already own and then we will have parking. When I was a kid and we went shopping, there were booths with people in them collecting the parking fees. Maybe it is time to bring in parking stations?
ReplyDeleteWhat developers broke their promises? The last real developer that Plainfield had was almost 20 years ago when Hovnanian built the homes on Woodland Ave. They did what they were supposed to do and moved on. We haven't had a real developer until now. The Monarch was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Landmark is in the right place at the right time. Whats the problem.
Regarding parking, the City should follow New Brunswick's lead. Any new mixed use construction in the downtown should include parking underneath the structure.
ReplyDelete