Newark

[Kris]

November 17, 2002
Newark Puts Its Fiery Riot Behind It
By BRENT STAPLES

The riots that burned through this country in the late 1960's ravaged more than 125 cities and reached into 28 states. Most Americans would find it difficult to name even a dozen of those cities. But the conflagration that ripped through Newark in 1967 remains especially fresh in public memory, perhaps because most people had never heard of the city until they watched it burning on the evening news. Try as it might to escape, Newark has lived in the shadow of its riot for 35 years.

The riots sent businesses and middle-class families streaming into the suburbs. But one of the lesser known legacies of all that fiery violence is what urbanologists call "the architecture of fear" — which includes gated communities and those ubiquitous fortress-style office towers that project windowless stone walls to the sidewalk where stores and shops should be. The architecture of fear has killed the possibility of street life in downtown Los Angeles and hurt the revitalization of Detroit as well. Visit Newark at rush hour on a weekday evening and you will see the same symptoms on display. The train station at rush hour is bustling with commuters sipping coffee and reading, many waiting to be picked up and whisked off to the suburbs. But a short walk from the station, into the heart of the city, you encounter the eerily vacant thoroughfare of Raymond Boulevard, lined with buildings that feature blank facades instead of stores or coffee shops. The Hilton Gateway Hotel has a drab cement-colored face that looks like some kind of bunker at the street level.

Covered elevated walkways allow workers to move from the train station to any one of several office towers without ever touching the street. There is little to see anyway, since the designers omitted shops and retail spaces that would have attracted people. At 6 in the evening, I walked several blocks into this city of 274,000 people and encountered fewer than a half-dozen pedestrians.

Planners and community groups in Newark have become vividly aware of this problem. The architecture of fear downtown seems to have met its match, in the approachable, human-scale architecture of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. This graceful, low-rise, red brick structure, awash in light, is a visual oasis in Newark and more engaging by far than its unglamorous acronym, NJPAC, suggests. The building has become a magnet for foot traffic in a previously vacant corner of downtown.

The first time I visited the area around the center at night, I passed through empty streets and suddenly encountered throngs of people filing in to see the British pop star Elvis Costello. "If someone had told you 10 years ago that there would be 3,000 people in downtown Newark at night, you would have called them crazy," said Lawrence Goldman, NJPAC's president and chief executive.

The main performance hall, done in warm woods and copper trim, has the intimate feel of a nicely appointed living room. The foyers and lobbies have a similarly warm, even homey feel. The building is popular with foundations and businesses staging parties and retreats. During the summer, the front plaza becomes the stage for weekly free outdoor concerts that attract as many as 2,500 people a night. Once stark and fearsomely vacant, the area is now a thriving singles scene. Restaurants and parking lots have sprouted nearby.

Mr. Goldman was seen as crazy when he first argued that the city should build a world-class cultural institution in its desolate downtown. One set of skeptics told him that white suburbanites who had been scared away by the riots would never come back at night. Another set of skeptics predicted that white suburbanites would come but that black people would stay away in droves.

The doubters have proved to be spectacularly wrong. Celebrating its fifth birthday this fall, NJPAC has become what surveys describe as one of the most well-attended performing arts centers of its kind in the country, outstripping its peers by a significant margin. One in four tickets is bought by minority patrons — a proportion that puts performing arts centers in most other cities to shame.

With its intimate feel, the center has little in common with stolid, formal institutions like the Kennedy Center in Washington or Lincoln Center in New York. Mr. Goldman's architects were pushed to create what he describes as a "welcoming building" that "makes people feel hugged when they come in" — and makes them want to linger.

Mr. Goldman is campaigning to ensure that other parts of downtown Newark are rebuilt with the same goal in mind. His influence is apparent in the new 12-story F.B.I. building that is going up just a stone's throw from NJPAC. What could easily have been a cold, stone obelisk has turned out to be an illuminated, window-filled building that will have restaurants and retail space. Though not perfect, the building harmonizes with the waterfront in a way that a traditional fortress structure would not.

In the old days, Newark would have been pleased to have any building it could get, fortress or not. But the tempering of the look of the F.B.I. building reflects a new awareness that good architecture will help the city's renaissance and that bad architecture can hurt it. When the history of the Newark comeback is written, it will likely begin at the start of the 21st century, when NJPAC solidified its position as the living, breathing town square that had been missing in downtown Newark for 40 years.

Copyright The New York Times Company

[bak]

NJPAC

http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/bruner/2001/newjersey/photos/photo4.JPG
Image from ublib.buffalo.edu

[tone99loc]

While Newark won't be a 24 hour city anytime in the forseeable future, if indeed the Nets and Devils arena makes it to downtown Newark, it should reenforce what this article is saying...

[NYatKNIGHT]

I have actually seen a show at NJPAC - it is a spectacular performance venue.

http://www.rthotel.com/NJPAC/njpac.1.jpg

[Kris]

November 30, 2003

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY | NEWARK

Developers Plan to Repopulate the Downtown Area

By JOHN HOLUSHA

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/11/30/realestate/comprop.650.jpg
The Hahne & Company department store and the Griffith Building behind it are to hold 223 apartments.

FOR more than 17 years, the old Hahne & Company department store has sat vacant on two blocks of prime real estate on Broad Street in downtown Newark, defying multiple attempts to convert it to another use. But lately, a new owner, the Cogswell Realty Group, has cleaned up the exterior and installed new windows, planning to convert it and the adjacent Griffith Building into 223 rental apartment units.

Other developers also plan residential projects in the downtown area, including converting office buildings, building new mixed-use towers along the Passaic River shoreline and adding residential structures at the city's colleges and a new "urban village" of midrise and high-rise housing in an area that might or might not become the home of a new sports stadium.

In all, these projects could add more than 6,000 housing units in Newark's downtown, giving it the first sizable resident population in generations, said Arthur R. Stern, the president of Cogswell, which is based in New York.

The hope is that if people live in the city, rather than fleeing to the suburbs after work or school, it will encourage the development of restaurants and other retail services that are largely lacking now.

"Newark has been a ghost town after 5 p.m.," said Sharpe James, the city's mayor. "To have a viable city, you need to have a viable downtown and we are trying to make downtown into a neighborhood." He said that while corporations had moved offices into downtown or expanded their presence in recent years, there had been no parallel growth in a full-time residents.

A big part of the reason, Mr. Stern said, is that there was no housing suitable for the people working in the area. "There is zero supply," he said. He said Cogswell was planning to spend $180 million to convert the Hahne-Griffith complex and a nearby office building at 1180 Raymond Boulevard to residences.

Demand for housing is coming not just from office workers. Educational officials say students at what were largely commuter colleges in the city are increasingly demanding to live on campus and in the process producing a more livable city.

"With our housing and the projects on Broad Street, we could convert this into a 24-hour-a-day community," said Steven J. Diner, provost and chief operating officer of Rutgers University's Newark campus. He said it could be argued that Newark, although its roots were industrial, is now the most college-oriented town in the nation, with more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students in a city of 275,000.

IN addition to Rutgers-Newark, the cluster of educational institutions in what is known as the University Heights part of the city includes the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Essex County College. State plans to merge Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Medicine and Dentistry would produce a university offering a full range of undergraduate and graduate studies.

Rutgers-Newark is planning a new undergraduate dormitory that would house 600 students — construction is expected to begin this summer — and it is considering apartmentlike graduate housing that would fill a full block.

"We want retail all around on the first floor," Dr. Diner said of the graduate housing. "There is no reason why we could not have a Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore there with a coffee bar."

For nonstudents, the new developments could offer housing prices and rentals at less than half the cost in Manhattan and less than in parts of Jersey City and Hoboken.

And with the restoration of the PATH line to Lower Manhattan, Newark residents would be a station stop or two away from locations on the Hudson River. The main northeast line of Amtrak also runs through Newark and is about a 15-minute ride into Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan.

"Newark has a wonderful transportation infrastructure left over from the 19th and early 20th centuries," Dr. Diner said. "And we have the Art Deco buildings that were not torn down and replaced because of Newark's condition."

Newark's condition is a polite way of describing a city whose industrial base dwindled or moved away, whose population declined from more than 400,000 in the 1960's to its current level and that was battered by bloody riots in 1967. Indeed, some of the educational institutions drawing all those students today were expanded or moved into the city after 1967 to provide an economic base.

This is a good strategy for economic development in a postindustrial era, said Peter Smirniotopoulos, an urban planner and faculty member at Johns Hopkins University.

"In a knowledge-based economy, colleges and universities will be the factories of the 21st century," he wrote in the November issue of Urban Land magazine. Rather than stay confined to their own campuses, he said, "colleges and universities should be better integrated into the cities and towns where they are located."

RUTGERS-NEWARK is a few blocks north of Broad Street but is separated from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and a growing arts area to the south by a dead zone two blocks deep and six blocks wide that includes the Hahne and Griffith Buildings, a surface parking lot and old retail buildings that will probably be demolished.

If they are successfully turned into residences, it would join the two areas into a community, real estate officials said.

The fact that people were willing to go to work in the rehabilitated office buildings on Broad Street in the city's core suggested there was a pent-up demand for housing, said Larry Regan of Regan Development. His company is converting an office building that was completed in 1906 at 9 Clinton Street, just south of Broad Street, into 63 one- and two-bedroom apartment units that will rent for $1,000 to $1,600 a month.

"There has been no new housing or rehabilitation in 15 to 20 years, and we are convinced that there are a lot of people who want to live near where their jobs are," Mr. Regan said.

"The cultural amenities of the city could produce a live-work neighborhood, and that could lead to more restaurants and retail amenities on the commercial side."

Matrix Development, which had largely been an industrial developer in the state's midsection, is planning a mixed-use development, including 400 to 500 housing units, stores, a hotel and possibly an office building along the Passaic River.

Richard F. X. Johnson, the company's senior vice president for development, said the residential and retailing components would be built first, with the units becoming available in the fall of 2005.

He said communities upstream were working to clean up the contaminated Passaic River, which was the area's main transportation link before the 19th century. A riverfront park is being built north of the Matrix development and water events like rowing competitions are planned in the area.

Mr. Johnson said the developers of the individual projects were working together to create an attractive community that would benefit them all.

"It is not enough for us to be successful," he said. "Arthur has to be successful and the others as well if this is going to work."

Not everything is rosy, of course. For one thing, the public schools are widely seen as struggling to provide an adequate education for the city's children. That situation will probably have a lot to do with the types of people who might be interested in living downtown, said James W. Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers.

"The market will be for people in the pre- and post-children phases," he said. "The maturing baby boomers are 57 this year and that means lots of empty nesters. And the echo boomers are 20-somethings interested in an urban lifestyle."

In addition, he said, the efforts to prevent the sprawl of housing over the countryside in the state are beginning to work, redirecting development back into cities. "There is a basic shift on housing," he said. "This may be part of that."


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Gulcrapek]

Living in the former store looks like it could be awesome. Gigantic windows.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Phase I of the Newark light rail is now under construction. Phase I is the tunnel segment that connects the Newark City Subway to street level near the NJ Performing Arts Center.

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/NERL3.sized.jpg

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/NERL2.sized.jpg

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/NERL1.sized.jpg

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/NERL4.sized.jpg

[TLOZ Link5]

Wonderful news! Is there a site detailing the entire proposed system?

All I've found so far is this transit map of the metro area:

http://www.columbia.edu/%7Ebrennan/subway/SubwayMap.gif

It's a biiiiig file, but it includes the subway, MetroNorth, LIRR, Amtrak, NJ Transit, both AirTrains, PATH, Newark City Subway, Hudson-Bergen, lines that are under construction, and major ferry routes. Very informative, and it is updated regularly.

[z22]

Official sites:

http://www.njtransit.com/an_capitalprojects_project005.shtm
http://www.njtransit.com/an_capitalprojects_newark_brochure.shtm
http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/commuter/route21/overview.htm

[krulltime]

This is really what Newark needs. Cities tend to do better with good rail transit transportation. :D

[Kris]

This is the first I've heard of this, if anyone's got more info please post

Newark's Waterfront http://www.nelessen.org/framep.htm

Where the heck did this come from?!

[JCDJ]

Oh, thanx :D

[NYatKNIGHT]

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/Newark.sized.jpg

The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart is a huge, Gothic Cathedral seen from Branch Brook Park, another park by Olmstead and Vaux. Branch Brook Park boasts more cherry blossoms than the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C.

[NYguy]

Phase I of the Newark light rail is now under construction. Phase I is the tunnel segment that connects the Newark City Subway to street level near the NJ Performing Arts Center.


This is actually more of an extension of the Newark subway (same system, same cars) and is the key link between Broad St (Lackawana) station and Penn Station. Its basically the same as the Jersey City/Bayonne light rail, and eventually all will be connected...

[NYguy]

Work has steadily been progressing on the Newark waterfront promenade...

http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/prjlinks/flooding/minish/archive/sept02/pourl.jpg

Installation of concrete formwork in preparation of concrete pour


http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/prjlinks/flooding/minish/archive/sept02/burlapl.jpg

Dewatered cofferdam area and concrete curing with burlap cover


http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/business/prjlinks/flooding/minish/archive/sept02/pennl.jpg

Recently completed bulkhead looking south towards Penn Station



http://pps.org/newark/images/dzn_images/eandk_option7d.jpg


http://pps.org/newark/images/dzn_images/eandk_option7b.jpg


http://pps.org/newark/images/dzn_images/eandk_option6_lg.jpg

[Ninjahedge]

Now comes the hard part in Urban Renewal for Newark.

Gettin all them poor people out of there!

;)

[Kris]

As Jersey City has more than gotten it's act together to compete with Manhattan, Newark, New Jersey's biggest city is virtually a waste land.
While there are some old skyscrapers reminicent of a better day it would seem that nothing is planned to be built. The performing arts center is a plus but quite honestly if it weren't for Newark Liberty Airport, Newark would be about as important as Kalamazoo, Michigan is for to great Metropolis.
What gives Newark?

[Kris]

Newark's classic example

Courthouse is set to show off again

Monday, June 28, 2004

BY NIKITA STEWART
Star-Ledger Staff

More than 100 years ago, Essex County -- then one of the nation's wealthiest and most powerful counties -- wanted something to show off.

Across the country, governments were erecting state capitols, city halls and courthouses designed with elegance and grandeur. Marble stairways, bronze sculptures and colossal Corinthian columns were the standard.

Essex County would not be left out and spared no expense to construct a courthouse envisioned as the showcase for modern artisans.

Cass Gilbert, who would later design the Woolworth Building in Manhattan and the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., was the architect. He brought along other artisans who were part of a movement to beautify cities through neo-Classical architecture -- a merge of styles from Greek, Roman and Renaissance cultures.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who would later carve the faces of four presidents into Mount Rushmore, created a statue of President Abraham Lincoln to sit on the courthouse steps. Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the glasswork.

The $2 million building -- an expensive venture at the time -- opened in 1906 to rave reviews.

Now, after years of disrepair, neglect and legal wrangling, the building is returning to its grandeur.

The county will unveil its $49 million restoration of the old Essex County Courthouse, located in Newark at the intersection of Market Street and Springfield Avenue, by the end of the year.

"This courthouse is the centerpiece of Essex County," Joseph DiVincenzo, the county executive, said during a recent sneak-peek tour of the renovation.

Newark historian Charles Cummings credits DiVincenzo with pushing the completion of the restoration.

"We will never have another building like that. Never. Even if we had the money, because of the craftsmanship, the skill," he said. "It's a spectacular building that represented the best of the Golden Era."

The restoration has been 14 years in the making, spurred by a lawsuit against the county by the Essex County Bar Association in 1990. The group of lawyers claimed the building was so dilapidated that it endangered the health and safety of its members.

Superior Court Judge Robert Passero, the Passaic County assignment judge who presided over the case, ordered the building restored to its condition of 1929 -- the last year the county made significant renovations.

The courthouse, which was shut down in 1997 for the restoration, will be used for civil court when it reopens. Last year, DiVincenzo announced that the county needed more time and more money to complete the project, but said it was one of his top priorities.

For historians, architects and conservators, refurbishing the courthouse has been lovely labor, especially since Gilbert -- whose work fell out of favor as architecture became more modern -- is seeing a resurgence.

"Cass Gilbert. I mean, Cass Gilbert. What can I say?" Audrey Malachowsky, a conservator working on the building, said gushing like a groupie talking about a rock star.

Malachowsky is part of a 17-member crew from EverGreene Painting Studios of Manhattan meticulously restoring the murals, decorative canvases and woodwork.

Every courtroom is unique -- 10 different designs and artwork, which is being carefully mended to make sure that the original paintings are unchanged.

Using chemically mixed paint to match the period, EverGreene puts varnish over the paintings before touching them up so historians will know "100 years from now" what was done by the original artists and what was done by the restoration firm, said Nancy Barnett, EverGreene's supervisor of the courthouse project.

Architect Michael Mills, who has been on the job since 1990, must make sure all new construction fits Gilbert's original design. He said his firm scoured the New York Historical Society for Gilbert's drawings before creating its own.

The county wanted an extra courtroom so Mills' firm, Ford, Farewell, Mills & Gatsch Architects in Princeton, designed an 11th, with the idea that it would look just like an original courtroom across a hall.

Mills said he has to admit the new courtroom is the lesser of the two. The original, which sits on the first floor, has walls of walnut and wood moldings with egg and dart designs, rosettes and Egyptian lotus motifs.

The wood paneling in the new courtroom rises just 7 feet and there is no intricate woodwork.

"Someone coming in the building will know it wasn't a Cass Gilbert design," Mills said, adding that his firm had to be cost-effective.

That wasn't always the case 100 years ago. Before the courthouse was built, county residents protested when officials announced much of the building would be limestone. About 300 people signed a petition to force the use of marble.

Gilbert also had the advantage of skilled artisans and craftsmen who were immigrating at the time, said Barbara Christen, a Cass Gilbert scholar.

"Tradesmen came off the boat from Italy," said Christen, who edited "Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain." "They knew how to cut stone, how to lay it, mosaic work."

The immigration wave coincided with the "City Beautiful" movement -- a trend that began in the 1890s toward urban planning and cleaning up cities through open space and majestic architecture. Gilbert was one of the stars in the movement.

But the architect -- appointed chairman of the Council of Fine Arts by President Theodore Roosevelt and reappointed by President Woodrow Wilson -- began losing his clout in the 1930s.

The German Bauhaus architecture movement, which abandoned neo-Classicism and introduced modernism through steel, glass and straight lines, spread throughout the country, leading to the rise of Frank Lloyd Wright and others.

Gilbert's most famous work, the U.S. Supreme Court building, was not praised at the time. He completed the design in 1929 but died in 1934 before the building was completed the next year.

But now Gilbert is back in fashion. In 1997, a group of architects and others formed the Cass Gilbert Society that now boasts 150 members who promote and recall his contributions.

"I think Cass Gilbert always was a great architect, but he may have been taken for granted because he did so many important buildings," Mills said. "It was very fortunate for Essex that they got the renowned architect of the time."

Nikita Stewart covers Essex County government. She can be reached at nstewart@starledger.com or (973) 392-1766.

Copyright 2004 NJ.com

[TLOZ Link5]

Jan. 02, 2006

Investors bank on Newark rebirth

By Janet Frankston
Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. - Given that Jersey City and Hoboken have become alternatives to Manhattan as havens for the hip and trendy, some New York developers are banking on downtown Newark as the next place for upscale housing.

The latest attempt to accelerate Newark's long-awaited renaissance is the rehabilitation of an art deco building at 1180 Raymond Blvd., blocks from Newark Penn Station and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Arthur Stern, chief executive officer of the Cogswell Realty Group, hopes to lure tenants with amenities that include valet parking, an 8,000-square-foot health club, a basketball court, and a bowling alley. The 37-story former office building will have 317 apartments.

But whether there is a market is "the $100 million question," Stern said.

The housing boom that has hit other North Jersey cities has bypassed Newark.

"I don't know why it hasn't happened already," said Linda Epps, president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Historical Society. "The revitalization effort has taken far too long."

The state's largest city struggles with an image as a poor, crime-ridden, unsafe place, a legacy of the riots of 1967.

Slow to recover

"I am surprised it has taken a full generation and then some since the 1967 riots for the city to have the kind of momentum it seems it has now in its downtown corridor," said Clement Alexander Price, a professor of history at Rutgers University-Newark.

The dense downtown and the transportation network are an urban planner's dream.

NJ Transit and PATH funnel commuters into Newark Penn Station. A transit system expected to open in the summer would connect the Penn and Broad Street stations, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, a riverfront stadium, and other sites. Newark Liberty International Airport is about five miles from downtown.

The arts center opened in 1997, and a few upscale restaurants have followed. In October, Newark and the New Jersey Devils broke ground on a $310 million, 18,000-seat arena scheduled to open in 2007.

Nevertheless, for some the perception of Newark hasn't changed. "The riots just scared everyone away from this place," said Epps, who lives and works downtown.

$200 million push

Mayor Sharpe James said that was changing, and Stern said, "Newark is safe, vibrant and making a comeback."

Stern said his impression of Newark had changed since his first visit in late 1997, when he expected to be carjacked.

His company has invested more than $200 million in the city, buying about six acres bordering Military Park for 3,000 rental units that it plans to build in the next 10 years.

The Raymond Boulevard building, which it bought eight years ago, has been gutted and fixed up with 1,441 new windows, high-speed Internet and cable lines, and four new elevators.

Rent will range from $1,175 per month for a 665-square-foot studio to $2,300 for a two bedroom of about 1,000 square feet.

The first tenants are expected to move in July 1.

One of them, Kevin Ledig, 28, will move from an apartment near the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where his wife is a student. Ledig said living in Manhattan near his job wasn't an option.

"The rents are ridiculous for shoe boxes," he said, adding that the commute to work was easy. "I saw a lot of potential" in Newark.

But to convince others, developers needed to offer more than a good deal, said John McIlwain, a senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute.

Newark attracts urban professionals like Haley Peele, 25, who got to know the city as a student at the Rutgers campus.

She pays $915 a month for a downtown second-floor walk-up studio apartment. "It's not so rough," she said. "It's kind of like a city that's trapped in the '50s, and I think that's charming."

© 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.philly.com

[macmini]

Sorry I read part of the article from one site that said Newark, NJ and posted from the link from the full article that I didn't read. My bad!!!! :(

[Dagrecco82]

^^^ I think they meant Newark, California.

[Dagrecco82]

Here's a few photos of the development going on in downtown Newark.

The site of the Devil's Arena.
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/5858/img03642qz.jpg


Advertisement for 1180 Raymond Boulevard, which is undergoing an $80,000,000 conversion to residential and retail use.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7928/img0406medium2ok.jpg


Worker powerwashing the grime off beautiful art deco details.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/6951/img0407large9vp.jpg


Construction of 2 of several lightrail stops. The first is of a stop in front
of the Verizon building on Broad St and the second one is the NJPAC stop.
This will be the last stop and the lightrail goes underground
further up to connect with Newark Penn Station.
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/1361/img0419medium1kr.jpg

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/7484/img0417medium3rk.jpg

[JCMAN320]

Actually that is the Newark Subway system. This an extension of it. The mainline goes underground quite a ways and later comes above ground deeper in Newark by Branch Brook Park and then into Bellville. Great pics by the way.

[Dagrecco82]

Thanks! Lightrail just has a nicer tone to it. :p

[Dagrecco82]

Here are some shots of the downtown area of Newark and surrounding areas.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/4275/img03515vy.jpg

The Prudential Building

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3589/img03524tg.jpg

153 Halsey Street

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/723/img0355large5cf.jpg

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6255/img0356large3bb.jpg

County courthouse with Gutzon Borglum 's statue of Lincoln in front.

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/6628/img0357large5zf.jpg


http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4224/img0361large2ta.jpg


114-116 Market Street. Most refer to it as the Jukebox building.
Handsome building in despair.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1570/img0363custom0jr.jpg

First Presbyterian Church 1791

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/6993/img03654kp.jpg

First State National Bank
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/1378/img0366large6jc.jpg

Firemen's Insurance Building

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2802/img03684di.jpg

[ablarc]

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/6628/img0357large5zf.jpg
That is one really good statue.

Borglum was OK, Rushmore not a fluke.

[JCMAN320]

Newark has great architecture and parks, these pics put it on display beautifully and these are just a small sampling of the beautiful architecture there. With the new Arena hosting various events such as the Devils and Seton Hall BAsketball, circus, concerts etc.., NJPAC, Newark Bears Stadium, subway extension, and the refurbishing of the surrounding buildings that has already started, this will help to bring Newark back to it's former glory. It may be hard to believe for some of you New Yorkers, but the intersection of Broad and Market was BUSIER than Time Square and was the busiest intersection in the world. Had more cars and people going through there per hour than any other intersection at the world and this was through the 20s-40s. Newark was once a great alternative to NYC for a night out and the people that would perfrom in Newark were the same headliners that would be in NYC. I mean Newark once had the population in the 40s-50s of 450,000. A little less than currently in Boston, thats how popular Newark was. Than after the riots it was down hill. But Newark will be back and along with it's come back and Jersey City's already having made a strong comeback, NYC will be given a run for its money.

[JerzResident]

Newark has great architecture and parks, these pics put it on display beautifully and these are just a small sampling of the beautiful architecture there. With the new Arena hosting various events such as the Devils and Seton Hall BAsketball, circus, concerts etc.., NJPAC, Newark Bears Stadium, subway extension, and the refurbishing of the surrounding buildings that has already started, this will help to bring Newark back to it's former glory. It may be hard to believe for some of you New Yorkers, but the intersection of Broad and Market was BUSIER than Time Square and was the busiest intersection in the world. Had more cars and people going through there per hour than any other intersection at the world and this was through the 20s-40s. Newark was once a great alternative to NYC for a night out and the people that would perfrom in Newark were the same headliners that would be in NYC. I mean Newark once had the population in the 40s-50s of 450,00. A little less than currently in Boston, thats how popular Newark was. Than after the riots it was down hill. But Newark will be back and along with it's come back and Jersey City's already having made a strong comeback, NYC will be given a run for its money.

I agree, I see the changes going on in the downtown area and its amazing and Jersey City is simply a burgeoning city ready to take over. I attend New Jersey City University and Im downtown all the time. Its become a mini manhattan over there. People dont realize Wall Street is moving to Jersey City and Newark is already one of the top Insurance towns in the world. Me being born and raised in East Orange I'm very proud of what I am seeing

[Dagrecco82]

^^^ I agree! Here's more pics...
I had Newark Cops chase me away after taking some of these.
I guess they thought I was a threat. :rolleyes:

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/3199/img0369large2hu.jpg

Gatewat III & IV

http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8264/img03700my.jpg

Gateway IV

http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/5752/img03724su.jpg

Newark Legal Center

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5471/img0387large8dj.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/5823/img0390large2os.jpg

Newark Penn Station

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/9290/img0376large7ty.jpg

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/212/img0380large8dh.jpg

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/6745/img0382large4to.jpg


http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/9817/img0386large8xz.jpg

[JerzResident]

Your pictures are great Dagrecoo, keep em coming:)

[Dagrecco82]

Here's some more...

One Newark Center
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/5460/img0389large1cq.jpg


Scales of Justice Fountain at One Newark Center

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/2474/img0394large3zj.jpg


http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/1429/img0397large9vj.jpg







National Newark Building and 1180 Raymond Boulevard undergoing
renovation.
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8223/img0398large2tz.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3451/img0400large9kl.jpg


Military Park Building
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/5782/img0403large0ol.jpg


80 Park Plaza with reflection of Military Building

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/6726/img0404large9eh.jpg

Prudential Plaza Building

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/1176/img0414large0ef.jpg

NJPAC
I hope everyone enjoyed them :)

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6186/img0418large1gv.jpg

[ablarc]

Need to import some people.

[JerzResident]

I always thought that little area by the PSEG building can be a mini rockerfella plaza, the huge fountain resembles the skating rink, they gotta do something about the carlton motel though

[Kris]

Pavilion and Colonnade Apartments by Mies van der Rohe, 1960 (http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature189.htm)

[NYatKNIGHT]

Actually that is the Newark Subway system. This an extension of it. The mainline goes underground quite a ways and later comes above ground deeper in Newark by Branch Brook Park and then into Bellville. Great pics by the way.It is an extension of sorts, but the Light Rail is its own project called the Newark-Elizabeth Rail Link. What they have in common is they both terminate at Penn Station, and the City Subway has upgraded to the technology that was initially proposed for the Light Rail.
The Light Rail was originally intended to head south to Elizabeth all the way to the port terminals, but that's on hold for now.

Nice photos.That McKim, Mead, and White waiting room at Penn Station is sensational.

[JCMAN320]

NJPAC unveils plan for high-rise development

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center unveiled plans today for a high-rise development across Center Street in downtown Newark. The first major expansion since the arts center opened in 1997, the high-rise would feature at least 250 residential units - including 50 reserved for performing and visual artists - 30,000-square feet of street-level retail and structured parking for 700 cars.

“This is a complicated project in an untested market, but it’s time for Newark to have a 24/7 downtown,” Lawrence P. Goldman, NJPAC’s president and CEO, said.

The project, to be known as Two Center Street, will be built on 1.2 acres between Park and Mulberry streets, across from the arts center’s entrance. The land now features a two-story building and parking lot. There are two more planned developments on the art center’s 16-acre footprint.

NJPAC hopes to select a developer for the $100 million-plus building by the end of this year, and to open the site in 2010. NJPAC has already invested $2.5 million in the preliminary stages of the effort, which was first detailed in its master plan in 1988.

Built with $185 million from public and private sources, NJPAC features the multi-use 2,750-seat Prudential Hall and the 514-seat Victoria Theater. In its first eight seasons, the venue has attracted more than 4 million people to classical and pop concerts, dance, theater and jazz programs.

Contributed by Peggy McGlone

[Kris]

March 16, 2006
Arts Center Has a Plan to Help Newark Revive
By RONALD SMOTHERS

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/03/16/nyregion/16newark1.583.jpg
A rendering of a housing and retail complex costing more than $100 million, proposed for land across the street from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/03/16/nyregion/16newark2.650.jpg
Lawrence P. Goldman, chief executive of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, said that "no city can be great without downtown housing."

NEWARK, March 15 — For nearly 40 years, Newark has been trying to fight its way back from the riots of the 1960's and a generation in which people and businesses spilled out of the city to the suburbs on the highways that crisscross it.

In fits and starts over the last decade, residents have seen some progress in rebuilding the state's largest city: a minor league ballpark, the start of construction on a new hockey arena for the New Jersey Devils, the addition of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

But the benefits, like jobs and tax revenues, have not been obvious, and the urban ills of poverty, high crime, gang violence and substandard housing have persisted. To many, a sense of excitement may not have caught on, and they question whether Newark has actually turned a corner.

Now civic leaders and city officials are hoping to give the city another little push toward revival, this time pinning their hopes on the performing arts center.

Built nine years ago, at a cost of $187 million, the center has been a surprise success story, drawing both crowds and interest, and serving as an effective good-will ambassador for downtown Newark.

On Wednesday, Lawrence P. Goldman, the president and chief executive of the arts center, announced a plan to expand both the scope and presence of the complex, in the hopes that it will transform that part of Newark into a haven for artists and art lovers.

The center is seeking developers interested in becoming a partner in the construction of 250 units of mostly market-rate housing and street-level retail space on a plot of land it owns across the street from the red-brick-and-glass building that houses its concert hall and theater and restaurant complexes.

Mr. Goldman said the proposed housing towers, like the performing arts center, would look out over the Passaic River and form a southern boundary to an area now envisioned as a "theater square."

Under the plan, 20 percent of the apartments would be set aside for artists with modest incomes, Mr. Goldman said; the rest would be market-rate rentals. The project involves the first new residential construction in downtown Newark in a generation, he said.

The project is necessary, he said in an interview, "because no city can be great without downtown housing."

If the project gets off the ground, it will be only the latest residential development downtown. Public and private partners are also creating 324 housing units in a former office building, and Rutgers University is building a dorm for its Newark campus a block away from the arts center.

In nearby neighborhoods, Mr. Goldman said, town houses and two-family homes are sprouting on vacant lots where for years there had been only wildflowers and tall grass.

"Urban transformation has always been in the performing arts center's DNA," Mr. Goldman said. "Now we want to ride the wave and amplify the wave of what is happening in Newark."

The cost is estimated at more than $100 million, and most of it would be privately financed, but the center will probably seek some public money to help defray the cost of an underground parking garage. Mr. Goldman said he was confident that public money would be found.

He has some experience in this kind of project. Before coming to Newark, he was the vice president of Carnegie Hall, and he promoted its expansion into housing and office space. The Carnegie Hall Tower includes a mini artists colony in Midtown and has generated considerable income for Carnegie Hall.

Newark is not the only urban area to pin its revival hopes on an arts institution. Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Brooklyn — around the Brooklyn Academy of Music — and myriad smaller struggling cities have hoped to lure more artists and related businesses to their struggling downtowns.

Although arts institutions are important, said Michael D. Beyard, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute, they alone are not a "silver bullet" against urban blight. "If an arts institution is lucky," he said, "they do not have to take much action after they are built, and the private sector will do the heavy lifting of revitalization. But that is the exception and not the rule. Many downtowns have declined so far that to recreate the market is not easy."

But Arthur Stern, the chief executive of the Cogswell Realty Group, said he saw other signs that Newark was ripe for revival. His company has already staked more than $200 million on efforts to rebuild the city, including the purchase and renovation of the city's tallest building, a historic office tower. The building, at 744 Broad Street, which reopened in 1999, is nearly full and includes a Starbucks on the ground floor. The company is also completing the renovation of a 28-story Art Deco office tower into 324 units of market-rate housing, with health clubs and a bowling alley for tenants.

Mr. Goldman said that the performing arts center would seek proposals from several dozen developers with experience in urban settings. Arthur F. Ryan, chairman and chief executive of Prudential Financial, who is co-chairman of the center's board, said the company that was chosen would have to share the center's commitment to "artistic excellence, opportunity for all and racial diversity."

The performing arts center has attracted more than four million people to performances in the nine years it has been open, said Mr. Goldman, who called it an artistic success. Consequently, he said, now was the right time to make the foray into housing.

The planned housing will not provide anywhere near the income for the center that Carnegie Hall's office tower has, he said. But he noted that the Newark center owns another nearby parcel, which it would seek to develop next.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Dagrecco82]

Here's the website for the newly renovated 1180 Raymond Boulevard. I got myself on the VIP list to preview the apartments so I'm going this weekend. The amenities this building is offering are private lounge, four-lane bowling alley, bastketball court, private health club, and 24-hour valet parking, to name just a few. I'm guesing they are really counting on this building to rejuvenate Newark's downtown. I can't wait :D


www.eleven80newark.com (http://www.eleven80newark.com)

[macmini]

NEWARK'S NEW LOOK
March 18, 2006

http://www.nypost.com/photos/re03182006040.jpg
By ADAM BONISLAWSKI

GREEN GIANT: The Mulberry Street Promenade will include condos and shops. -- Welcome to brand Newark, a city that's gone from urban blight to pure possibility

It didn't take GLC Group principals Mark Caller and Pinny Loketch long to figure out that they'd hit upon a good thing with their plan to renovate Newark's Parc West building. Before their work on the six-story prewar structure across the street from 311-acre Weequahic Park was even complete, a number of locals had already stopped by to inquire about purchasing an apartment.

"We were approached many times by people in the neighborhood just passing by who'd been watching the renovations and wanted to know about buying a unit in the building," Caller says.

It's the sort of story a person would expect from Manhattan's ever-booming real-estate scene, but Newark? A hot property? Really?

Increasingly, the answer is yes. While for many tristate residents the city has long been synonymous with urban blight, the last few years have seen the area's renewal kick into full swing.

"Five years ago there wasn't a chance that we'd even consider selling apartments here," Caller says. "It was hard enough just running rental properties.

"But I've seen the city change right in front of my eyes just over the last few years. ... You see new homes going up on every single block in Newark."

The Parc West's 44 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments went to market in late February, with prices ranging from $99,000 to $279,819. Over half the units were reserved in one week.

Among these buyers was Rahway, N.J., resident Dennis Wilks, who, like Caller and Loketch, senses that the city is on the rebound.

"I've known Newark practically my whole life," he says, "and I thought that this would be a good time to buy, because the city is up-and-coming. ... Crime has been going down. People are coming back to invest in the city."

Wilks was also drawn by the Parc West's old-time charms. As Caller notes, efforts were made to play up the building's prewar amenities by restoring original moldings and wood-floor detailing - and preserving the building's Tudor exterior, 1929 elevator lobby and marble staircase.

"It reminds me of some of your old condos in New York City," says Wilks, who bought a Parc West one-bedroom.

Being right across from Weequahic Park doesn't hurt, either. Stocked with tennis courts, a golf course and an 80-acre lake, the park - designed in 1901 by the firm of Central Park planner Frederick Law Olmsted - is no doubt a draw.

Katherine Gray, who, with her husband, James, recently reserved a one-bedroom in the Parc West, remembers the spot from her school days just down the street at Weequahic High.
"I'm dating myself, but I remember when they used to run trotters in the park," she says. "There used to be a big clubhouse there, and people would sit and watch the horses run around the track."

Having lived in Newark for much of her life, Gray has seen many stages of the city's transformation.

"There's been a remarkable change compared to five years ago," she says. "Then there was literally nothing. Now the city is really coming alive."

Ken Baris, president of real-estate firm Jordan Baris - sales representative for the Parc West - has gotten a first-hand look at Newark's revitalization through his involvement with Summit Real Estate Developers' Southwyck Estates project in the South Ward.

A phased development consisting primarily of two-family homes, the project has sold more than 100 units since 2001, with roughly 50 more presently under contract and another 44 having recently come to market. Since the first homes went on sale about five years ago, prices have more than doubled, with units that initially started at $209,000 now selling for $399,900 to $459,900, "Back then, other developers didn't want to take the chance," Baris says. "We even had agents in the company saying that we were crazy for thinking we could get over $200,000 for these homes. But the reality was that the market was there."

It's a reality others are picking up on. Take, for instance, Matrix Development Group's plans for a $400 million mixed-use property on the Passaic River. When finished, the development will add 500 residences to downtown Newark.

Also downtown, the Mulberry Street Urban Renewal Company is looking to build on recent area additions, like the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, with a development called the Mulberry Street Promenade.

Current plans call for up to 2,200 market-rate condominiums and 180,000 square feet of restaurant, retail and office space to be built over 13 acres. Construction on the project's first phase is slated to begin this year, with roughly 100 one-, two- and three-bedroom units coming to market in late 2006.

A few blocks away by Military Park, Cogswell Real Estate Group is working to turn 1180 Raymond Blvd. and the former Hahnes department store and Griffith Piano Company buildings into high-end rental properties. At 1180 Raymond, 317 studio, one- and two-bedroom units are scheduled to hit the market July 1, with rents in the $1,300 to $3,500 range. The Hahnes and Griffith buildings, meanwhile, are being converted to 255 loft apartments that should be ready in 2007.
According to Cogswell CEO Arthur Stern, these two projects represent the start of the company's multi-phase plan to bring some 3,000 new rental and condo units to the western border of Military Park over the next 10 years.

Of course, however high the current upswing might carry it, Newark will never be New York. Caller does see it, though, becoming something of a bargain alternative for those turned off or forced out by Gotham's sky-high prices.

"In Brooklyn, for example, if you want to buy an apartment in a decent area, it's going to be more than double what it is in Newark," he says. "This is a nice urban setting, and for people who want that urban setting, they can have it here for half the price."

[Scruffy88]

this is friggin awesome. this is totally not the Newark I grew up with and thats such a good thing. Mid 80s- early 90s. great stuff for Newark

[stache]

Steel is going up for the stadium. Yesterday was the first day I noticed a sizeable amount of well dressed people East of Raymond on Broad in the afternoon.

[kevin]

Here's the website for the newly renovated 1180 Raymond Boulevard. I got myself on the VIP list to preview the apartments so I'm going this weekend. The amenities this building is offering are private lounge, four-lane bowling alley, bastketball court, private health club, and 24-hour valet parking, to name just a few. I'm guesing they are really counting on this building to rejuvenate Newark's downtown. I can't wait :D


www.eleven80newark.com (http://www.eleven80newark.com) How did that go? My wife and I were among the first three leases to go out for 1180. We're so excited to move in. Seeing the models is like torture, because we have to wait until July. We currently live in those monstrosities, The Pavillion. What a dump compared to our future digs. :)

[Dagrecco82]

I thought they did a remarkable job with that building, unfortunately, my significant other isn't too thrilled with area. So we'll see how that goes. Maybe I can do some persuasion.;)

[Marv95]

The only thing wrong with that area is grafitti, not alot, but a little bit. I agree that they should do a better job of cleaning it up, especially when '07 comes around. Other than that, the area isn't bad at all, just the ususal city traffic and a good amount of suits walking by.

[Dagrecco82]

The only thing wrong with that area is grafitti, not alot, but a little bit. I agree that they should do a better job of cleaning it up, especially when '07 comes around.

Definitely when the stadium opens. They should remember how important first impressions are to some people.

[Marv95]

^^So did you take a tour of the place I assume? Any details to share? A bowling alley and health club sounds cool; much better than Colonades, Pavillion, or Hallmark House(which isn't bad at all).

[Dagrecco82]

The models are beautiful. They really are going full force with this building. Marble bathrooms, washer and dryer included, nice large closets, and kitchens are nicely done ( granite countertops and stainless steel appliances). I was more in awe at the views! Sacred Heart Cathedral to the west with Branch Brook Park and the NYC skyline to the east. Absolutely WONDERFUL!

[stache]

They put up a model in Gateway Plaza for a new tower directly east of the Gateway center. It would replace a parking lot. Sorry I don't have a photo but it looks pretty nice, green glass, maybe 20 foors.

[NYatKNIGHT]

That model has been nearby in the Gateway casueways for at least five years. I noticed they put it next to the Devils Arena model but I assumed that was just for convenience.

[stache]

Thanks NY, I had not noticed it before. : )

[JCMAN320]

Newark set to sell historic site
Ballantine building, home of Science High, would be razed for Shaq's condo project

Wednesday, May 31, 2006
BY KASI ADDISON AND JEFFERY C. MAYS
Star-Ledger Staff

Another piece of Newark's history may fall victim to a wrecking ball in the name of redevelopment.

Once known as Malt House Number 3, the oldest remaining structure from the Peter Ballantine & Sons Ale Brewery in Newark has been home to Science High School for 23 years.

But Science High, one of the city's magnet schools, is scheduled to move into a new building on Norfolk Street in September. School officials were hoping they'd be able to keep renting the 146-year-old structure from the city for $1 a year and open another magnet program, American History High School, there.

Plans have changed.

A company owned by NBA star and Newark native Shaquille O'Neal wants to buy and demolish the historic school building at 40 Rector St., in the Central Ward, and build a luxury high-rise condominium complex.

The city is ready to sell -- at far below market value.

Today, the City Council will consider a resolution authorizing the sale of the property for $2.75 million. The building and land on which it sits have a combined market value of $6.5 million, according to city records.

Newark Business Administrator Richard Monteilh said the city is not receiving any tax revenue from the land or building. The condo project, he said, is in line with Newark's efforts to put vacant land and abandoned properties back on the tax rolls.

Wayne Garnes, who represents 36-54 Rector LLC, a company in which O'Neal is a principal, said that once the school building is demolished, a mixed-use condominium and retail project, called "One River View at Rector," will be built on the site.

"Both of these are signature projects for Shaquille. He's trying to do a nice job," Garnes said, referring to Science High and another residential project that O'Neal is backing on Springfield Avenue. "It's a fantastic project for the city."

Newark Schools Superintendent Marion Bolden wants the Science High building maintained as a school.

"It's not like we have buildings in our back pocket," she said. "I have overcrowding all over the district. A high school building is hard to find in this city."

The New Jersey Historical Society, Rutgers-Newark and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History have been working with Bolden to establish the American History High School, which would incorporate history into literature, math and science classes.

"History is very undervalued in schools by students. This allows students to learn in a different way and gives teachers a chance to teach in a different way," said Clau dia Ocello, director of programs and exhibitions at the state historical society.

Because the district is facing a $65 million shortfall and the state is cutting aid, it's unlikely the district will be able to come up with the $500,000 to $700,000 needed to fund the new project this year, Bolden said.

But even if funding becomes available, it won't matter if the city sells the property, she said.

"With every passing day, it looks less likely an American History High School will open this year," Bolden said.

With all the financial problems the city and school district are fac ing, adding another school might not be a good idea, Monteilh said.

"The need for another major high school in Newark is something she has to work out with the state," Monteilh said, referring to Bolden. "We are looking for effi ciencies, not a plant expansion. Marion is an educator. This is a business decision."

The Science High building is the oldest and largest remaining structure from the Peter Ballantine & Sons Ale Brewery. Built in 1860, it was taken over by the former Dana College in 1933. When Dana College was absorbed by Rutgers University in 1945, the building was used as a chemistry lab. Essex County College leased the building for several years before the Newark Board of Education took it over in 1983.

Because the building is located in the Military Park Commons Historic District and has been listed on the state Register of Historic Places, the city needs state approval before it can sell it.

Darlene Yuhas, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said her agency had received no application from Newark yet.

Monteilh said council authorization to sell the building will allow the city to begin the process of get ting the necessary state approvals.

Douglas Eldridge, head of the Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, said his group opposes the demolition of the building because it is one of the most important buildings in the Military Park Commons Historic District.

Still, he said, the city should follow the necessary process if it wants to sell the building.

"We can't control the outcome, but we want it to get whatever review it's supposed to get. That's why historic districts were created," he said.

The city's historic preservationists already are trying to save another endangered building, the Mulberry Street firehouse, which made the list of Preservation New Jersey's 10 most endangered historic sites this year.

Plans call for the firehouse to be demolished so that Mulberry Street can be widened as part of a massive downtown redevelopment project, which includes construction of a new sports arena.

Glen Leiner, executive director of the Art Deco Society of New York, which conducts tours in Newark, said Science High is the most popular building on the tour, which includes Newark Penn Station and the city's subway.

"Newark has some real treasures, but this building is so visually rewarding that it's always the favorite," he said.

The multicolored terra cotta designs on the outside of the building have won the structure legions of fans, he said.

The loss of the building, he said, would "strip Newark of an architec tural treasure that is unique and strongly tied to the city's heritage."

[TeddyJ]

Its good that Newark's own is investing back into the city but still, to tear a very historic site is robbing Newark's culture but I guess business is business.

[STT757]

Newark light rail gains steam
Line will get in gear this summer
Thursday, June 01, 2006
BY RUDY LARINI
Star-Ledger Staff

Newark's light-rail city subway extension is almost ready to roll.

With equipment testing and crew training under way, the first passengers should be riding along the one-mile light-rail line from Newark Penn Station to NJ Transit's Broad Street Station by early summer, said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit, which will operate the line. He could not pinpoint the start of service any more precisely.

"We won't be ready to set a date until we get a little further along on the testing and training phase of that segment," he said.

The $207.7 million light-rail extension of Newark's city subway will enable passengers on NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton and Morris & Essex rail lines to reach Newark Penn Station in 10 minutes or less without walking or taking a bus.

Combined with the renovation of the Broad Street Station and the widening of Route 21, the new line is expected to improve commuting to downtown Newark and its businesses and educational, recreational and cultural facilities.

Stessel said the line expects to attract 2,000 daily riders by the summer of 2007, with 3,550 riders a day by 2010. The existing subway line, which stretches through Newark from Penn Station to Branch Brook Park and two stations at Franklin Street in Belleville and Grove Street in Bloomfield, carries 18,450 passengers a day.

The new line has stations at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Bears & Eagles Stadium. There also is a station along Broad Street at Washington Park, close to the Newark Public Library and the Newark Museum, and another at Atlantic Street in the center of a growing business district.

Lawrence Goldman, president and chief executive of NJPAC, said the new line is expected to have a positive impact on the arts center.

"We're an urban arts center ... and this enhances our urbanity -- to have a mass transit stop right outside," he said. "It will make it easy to get here from all parts of New Jersey and New York."

Though the arts center is only a four-block walk from Penn Station, Goldman said the light-rail line will be especially valuable in inclement weather.

Those cold January nights, it would be nice not to have to walk outside and to arrive right at the arts center's doorstep," he said.

Goldman said he believes the new light-rail station also will facilitate NJPAC's plan to find a private development partner to build 250 apartments, 30,000 square feet of retail space and a 700-car parking garage on property directly across Center Street from the arts center.

"I believe the light rail will make the arts center's site very desirable for developers and residents who want an urban lifestyle," he said.

He cited the example of growth near subway stations in the outer boroughs of New York City.

"Everywhere there's a subway station, development happens around it," he said.

Jim Cerny, assistant general manager of the Newark Bears Atlantic League baseball team, also said the light rail would make it easier for patrons to attend games.

"We're excited to have the light rail right in front of the stadium," he said, noting the new station is right outside Gate C. "It could not be any better for us. We're very, very excited."

Five new light-rail cars were added to the existing subway fleet of 16 cars for the new line. Daily service on the extension will be offered from 6:04 a.m. to 12:13 a.m. weekdays and from 6:21 a.m. to 12:56 a.m. on weekends. On weekdays, trains will run every 10 minutes during peak periods and every 15 minutes during off-peak. Service will be every 30 minutes on weekends, timed to coincide with trains arriving at Broad Street from points west.

Stessel said the light-rail schedule also could be adjusted to ac commodate patrons of special events at NJPAC, the stadium or other facilities.

"If there's a need for additional service because of a particular event, we're fully prepared to adjust service accordingly," he said.

Initially, commuters who wish to ride both the new line and the existing city subway will have to change trains at Penn Station, though the system is designed to allow a train to continue through both lines.

"That's something we'll look at depending on what the usage pat terns are," he said.

The fare on the new line will be $1.25, the same as the existing subway, with $45 monthly passes allowing unlimited travel. NJ Transit customers with rail or bus passes worth more than $45 will be able to use the new line at no additional cost.

Cars along the extension will travel from Penn Station through a tunnel under Mulberry Street be fore reaching street level at McCarter Highway and Center Street.

The new line crosses Broad Street at two locations -- near the stadium on the way to the Broad Street Station and at Lombardy Street on the way back to Penn Station. There also are grade-level crossings on several smaller streets.

Stessel said NJ Transit engineers, over the course of several years of planning, used extensive computer simulations in working with city engineers to coordinate traffic signalization at the intersec tions of light-rail tracks and city streets.

The light-rail trains are driven by a motorman and powered by overhead catenary lines that Stes sel said have "a low profile."

"They have a very low visible impact on the city," he said.

NJ Transit also operates the Hudson-Bergen light-rail line from Bayonne to North Bergen in Hud son County and the 34-mile River Line between Camden and Tren ton in southern New Jersey.

There also are long-range plans for another light-rail line from Penn Station to Newark Liberty International Airport.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey

[kliq6]

was just out in Newark a feee weeks ago for a meeting the place is sure better then it was 10 years ago . Its a shame as this city, Not Jersey City should have been the place to get all those office moves from LM, but crime, corruption and other things killed it. I give Prudential alot of Credit, they never packed up

[TeddyJ]

was just out in Newark a feee weeks ago for a meeting the place is sure better then it was 10 years ago . Its a shame as this city, Not Jersey City should have been the place to get all those office moves from LM, but crime, corruption and other things killed it. I give Prudential alot of Credit, they never packed up

right, prudential has always been loyal to newark

[STT757]

Here's a view of the Newark Broad Street Light Rail Station, Broad Street Station which serve's NJ Transit's Mid-town Direct Montclair/Boonton, Morris/Essex, and Gladstone lines is on the right.

http://www.thecanteen.com/newspur01.jpg

Broad Street Light Rail platform.

http://www.thecanteen.com/newspur03.jpg

Washington Park Station

http://www.thecanteen.com/newspur11.jpg

Grade down to tunnel to Penn Station

http://www.thecanteen.com/newspur14.jpg

[Dagrecco82]

^^^ great pics!

[ryanov]

I took an apartment in 1180 that I'll be moving into in August. Should be fun!

[ryanov]

How did that go? My wife and I were among the first three leases to go out for 1180. We're so excited to move in. Seeing the models is like torture, because we have to wait until July. We currently live in those monstrosities, The Pavillion. What a dump compared to our future digs. :)
I'm pissed that I waited a little longer than I should have to accept a lease. My rent is about $20-$30 more per month than it would have been. I live in the Pavilion right now too... it's not THAT bad, but this is certainly an upgrade.

[G_Money]

How does 1180 look. I work in downtown Newark and the convenience appeals to me. So do the features and ammenities. But 1400 for a studio in newark where there is nothing to do after the work day? I dunno, i think theyre too high. Does anyone have any rough idea how many agreements they have out?

I may just have to take a look at a model this weekend.

[ryanov]

They are pretty high, but for me it's very convenient. The appartment is beautiful and the amenities are great... and there is stuff to do in the building.

There are also bars in Newark -- Hamilton's is a decent one, and then the bars in the Portugese restaurants.

Hoboken is about as expensive to live... but my guess is you wouldn't go there everyday, and it's only a 20 min ride. <shrug> It all depends.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Inside the train station:

http://www.pbase.com/image/61195260.jpg

[Dagrecco82]

:D Wow!

[ryanov]

Where the hell is that taken from? The PATH ramp?

[Dagrecco82]

Yeah, how'd you get up there!?

[NYatKNIGHT]

When you get off the PATH, instead of going down the escalator you take the ramp to Tracks 3 and 4. This is from the top of that ramp, or maybe it's stairs, I forget. Yeah, there's a lot of "wow" in that station.

[stache]

Odd combination of Nouveau and Deco in that building.

[JCMAN320]

Thats wasup, Newark's Penn Station is an absolute gem. I'm so pleased at the way they have taken care of it.

[Marv95]

How does 1180 look. I work in downtown Newark and the convenience appeals to me. So do the features and ammenities. But 1400 for a studio in newark where there is nothing to do after the work day? I dunno, i think theyre too high. Does anyone have any rough idea how many agreements they have out?

I may just have to take a look at a model this weekend.

Expensive yes. But unlike other luxury apts in the area, this one offers alot: a bowling alley, fitness center, valet parking, lounge(for X-Box and Playstation), etc. And have you forgotten the NJPAC and Ironbound clubs and resturants? Don't forget about the new arena opening down the street(ONLY if Booker doesn't screw it up).

[J Mintz]

I just came across and joined this site and I'm very impressed! I live right outside of Newark and am a Planning and Public Policy major at Rutgers-New Brunswick, so thus this whole thread is very interesting to me.
I noticed there was some mention of the Newark Light Rail here... well, the date has been set: (although I won't be around for opening day, it will be on my priority list for when I get back from Italy!)

NEWARK LIGHT RAIL SET TO OPEN JULY 17
http://www.njtransit.com/images/spacer.gif
Connects Newark’s two train stations through downtown district

June 22, 2006
NJT-06-084
Contact: Dan Stessel 973-491-7078
NEWARK, NJ — Newark Light Rail, an extension of the City’s subway system, will begin service on Monday, July 17, NJ TRANSIT Executive Director George D. Warrington announced this week at the corporation’s Board of Directors meeting.
The one-mile, light-rail extension will connect two of NJ TRANSIT’s busiest train stations — Newark Penn Station and Newark Broad Street Station — and support Newark’s economic rebirth along the waterfront and Broad Street. The project includes five new stations that will serve the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, The Newark Museum and the Broad Street commercial district.

“This new connector is part of the revitalization and redevelopment efforts here in Newark, and we are pleased to be a partner with the City in serving as an engine and a catalyst for economic development,” Warrington said.
At Newark Penn Station, Newark Light Rail will connect with the Newark City Subway, which provides 17,900 trips on a typical weekday at 12 stations between Newark Penn Station and Grove Street Station in Bloomfield. For more information about destinations served by NJ TRANSIT, customers may visit www.njtransit.com (http://www.njtransit.com/) or call 1-800-772-2222.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Inside the train station:

http://www.pbase.com/image/61195260.jpg
A trip to infinity.

[ablarc]

A trip to infinity.
You get a slightly different version of that in the Parker Meridien's mirrored through-block arcade. It comes complete with a slight curve, due to the minute misalignment of the mirrors.

[G_Money]

So whats up has anyone moved into 1180 yet? Any news? Im waiting for rents to drop, month to month on my current lease.

[Mix106]

More Ironbound pics, PLEASE!!!

[pianoman11686]

NEWARK AND IMPROVED

By ADAM BONISLAWSKI

July 13, 2006 -- "It all depends on what kind of person you are, an optimist or a pessimist," says new Newark mayor Cory Booker of the prospects for his notoriously troubled city's future.

Booker, by all accounts, falls into the former camp.

A football All-American at Stanford and a Rhodes Scholar, he had any number of high-powered options to choose from after graduating Yale Law School in 1997. Instead, Booker, who grew up in Harrington Park, N.J., headed for Newark, moving to the drug-infested Brick Towers housing project in the city's Central Ward.

In 1998 he ran for city council, unseating a four-term incumbent, and in 2002 he ran for mayor, losing a hotly contested race to long-time incumbent Sharpe James. This spring Booker ran once again, and won - giving Newark its first new mayor in 24 years.

Booker takes the reigns just as the long-moribund city has started to show some signs of life. Development is picking up across the area. Crime has fallen steadily, if unspectacularly (declining roughly 20 percent from 2000 to 2004, according to FBI Uniform Crime Reports). People are beginning to look past Newark's reputation and seeing opportunity instead of urban blight.

Booker has big plans to build on this momentum.

"What we're going to do in Newark, and we're going to do it very aggressively, is put hundreds of more cops on the streets," he says. "We're going to be moving dramatically against crime to create a safer environment that's going to rapidly increase property values."

Booker believes many of the other pieces of a real-estate boom are already in place.

"The reality is that we have so much competitive advantage in this region," he says. "We have one of the busiest ports in the region, one of the busiest airports in the region, all the major highways that intersect here, the rail lines that intersect here."

Downtown, several blocks west of Newark Penn Station, work is wrapping up on one of the more visible signs of the city's resurgence, Cogswell Realty Group's Eleven80 rental building. Formerly an office building, Eleven80 has retained its Art Deco facade, but most everything else has changed. Inside, the building, which offers 317 studio, one- and two-bedroom units, features the sort of amenities more typical of a swank Manhattan high-rise than your traditional Newark digs.

Units come with granite countertops, marble baths and porcelain tile floors. The building itself features a four-lane bowling alley, an 8,000-square-foot health club, a game room, maid service, a concierge, manicure and pedicure service and an on-call masseuse.

While rents at the building are low by New York City standards, $1,350-a-month studios, $1,900-a-month one-bedrooms and $2,600-a-month two-bedrooms represent a raising of the bar for Newark real estate.

And Cogswell is far from done. Over the last four years, the company has acquired plots of land along the western border of downtown's Military Park, where they plan to build some 3,500 rental and condo units in the next decade. Looks like Booker isn't alone in his optimism.

"You have 45,000 students and administrators from the colleges here that are completely under-served," Cogswell CEO Arthur Stern says. "You have 100,000 people who commute to work in Newark every day. For over 40 years people hadn't had it in their vocabulary that Newark was a possibility. Once that happens, the floodgates will open."

Speech-language pathologist Lauren Bradway recently signed a lease on a studio at Eleven80.

"When I tell my friends in Florida and the Midwest that I'm moving to Newark, they're horrified," says Bradway, who's moving from Piscataway, N.J. "But people have no idea what this city is going to become."

"I think if the city can get over its stigma, people will move there," agrees law student Kevin Ledig, who, with his wife Pamela Juarez - a dental student at the Newark-based University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey - were the first residents to move into Eleven80.

Ledig is excited about having Booker in office.

"My wife and I both voted for him," he says. "Everyone thinks of Newark and thinks of corruption because everyone has been in office for so long. When [Booker] ran in 2002, he brought the whole idea that it shouldn't be just an old-boys' network."

Among the changes Booker hopes to bring about is an end to the city's practice of selling publicly owned land for well below market value - sometimes at prices as low as $1 per square foot. He recently sued the city to stop such sales and won a temporary ban.

"If anybody told you that you were going to get a 30, 40 percent return on your money on a project, you would rush to do them here in the city of Newark," Booker says. "But the problem is, we've been giving people 150, 200 percent returns by literally giving away land.

"It was desperation. It was the old way of doing things. What worked in 1980 shouldn't be the plan in 2006."

Ken Baris, president of Jordan Baris Realtors, has a somewhat different perspective on the practice.

"Six or seven years ago, developers were looking at land that they could get from the city for $1 to $2 per square foot and developer after developer balked at it," he says. "Nobody wanted it."

But now, as Baris points out, "the market has changed."

"A city is a business. And businesses on an annual basis do an assessment and analysis of what they have," he says. "It's imperative for the city to take stock and do that, which I think is one of the first things that's happening. And I think that's right on the money."

Recent additions like the GLC Group's 44-unit Parc West condo building and Summit Real Estate Developers' Southwyck Estates - a new collection of multi-family homes - suggest that Newark isn't the no-go zone it once was for developers.

Also slated for the city are the Mulberry Street Urban Renewal Company's 2,200-unit Mulberry Street Promenade condo/retail development (with the first phase to start construction later this year) and a 500-unit, $400 million mixed-use riverfront project from the Matrix Development Group.

And as this building boomlet continues, you can expect to hear a lot from Cory Booker.

"We're going to create a group that's doing nothing but marketing the city, bringing in people, facilitating the process of engaging the city, putting together the right incentive packages with the state, with banks," he says. "We're going to create a rational system wherein any developer who has a real vision and a real plan can engage.

"Newark is an emerging market - an undiscovered country."

Copyright 2006 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[Dagrecco82]

I saw the lightrail working on Tuesday, it looked great! I didn't see anyone on-board, I'm guessing they were training the operators. Such a surreal site, Newark's lookin beautiful!

[NYatKNIGHT]

Rides on the light rail will begin Monday the 17th after the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Free rides for the first week of operation, I'm told.

[JCMAN320]

Great I cant wait. Thats how we do in Jersey free rides to lure you in then hit you with the fare and scare the crap out of you. lol

[Dagrecco82]

On the same Tuesday, I passed by the Devils Area without camera unfortunately, and it was looking as if a quarter of the steel skeleton had risen. It's moving fast at the construction site.

[kevin]

I'm pissed that I waited a little longer than I should have to accept a lease. My rent is about $20-$30 more per month than it would have been. I live in the Pavilion right now too... it's not THAT bad, but this is certainly an upgrade. We just moved out of Pavilion. I don't miss it. Many of the people that live there have no respect for their environment or the other people who live there, and management had no intent on improving the situation. It was evident to me whenever I'd see garbage or spit on the floor in the elevator, or when the parking gate would be broken, or everytime the elevators were broken...I think the culmination occured when a five-year-old child was missing for several hours, the Newark police went door-to-door trying to find him. Around 2:00am the fire department showed up. Turns out the kid was stuck in the elevator, and when asked why the guard didn't see him, the response was that the cameras in the elevators didn't work. But the views were amazing, I'll give Pavilion that.

[kevin]

I took an apartment in 1180 that I'll be moving into in August. Should be fun! BTW, I noticed you posting on a railroad forum about the light rail - my cousin posts there all the time (i think his name is hsr_fan or something). Send me a message here or something, I'm the Kevin in all of those articles (my wife and I had our picture in the NY Post on Thursday about 1180). It'd be nice to get to know our neighbors! How does 1180 look. I work in downtown Newark and the convenience appeals to me. So do the features and ammenities. But 1400 for a studio in newark where there is nothing to do after the work day? I dunno, i think theyre too high. Does anyone have any rough idea how many agreements they have out?

I may just have to take a look at a model this weekend. When we looked at the studios, we were amazed by the fact that they're virtually 1 bedroom apartments without doors. The studio is split up into three sections, a great area, the entry area, and a back sleeping area (no window). Some creativity could allow two roommates to share the apartment. As far as there being nothing to do after the work day, there are three nice pubs in downtown Newark: the KilKenny Alehouse (formerly the Hamilton pub), McGovern's Tavern, which is now open on saturdays, and Skippers Plane Street Pub. Oh, and Mix 27, which is new. If you're not into downtown, there are plenty of places in the Ironbound that offer nightlife...and great Brazillian food.

[Marv95]

Glad people are talking about Eleven80. I was told by one of the managers that the building won't be ready to move in until August. Make sense because honestly, that building is in no shape to be moved in right now--the outside of it anyway. And what's this I hear about the new light rail being free for next week?

[lofter1]

Newark Mayor Chases Suspect,
but His Guards Make the Grab

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/14/nyregion/14booker.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
July 14, 2006

Mayor Cory A. Booker began his term on July 1 in Newark vowing to reduce crime with a program of zero-tolerance policing.

Yesterday afternoon, the new mayor — along with two police officers in his security detail — had a firsthand opportunity to put that policy into effect.

In a city known for rampant crime and a murder rate that has been rising even as it has been generally falling nationwide, it is not unheard-of to see crimes take place in broad daylight.

Sometimes they even take place in front of City Hall.

Mayor Booker and his guards left Newark’s City Hall around 12:30 p.m.
yesterday for a meeting and stumbled upon what appeared to be a confrontation across the street: a police officer and a man in a standoff on Broad Street. The officer held a gun and the man wielded a pair of scissors.

The police later said that the man had just robbed a customer in the City National Bank of hundreds of dollars. In escaping the bank, the man was brushed by a car and fell.

When a nearby police officer went to help him, the man tried to stab the officer with the scissors, but missed, Mr. Booker said. The officer drew his gun as the suspect was running away.

Mr. Booker, 37, who played tight end on Stanford University’s football team, said, “I took off my jacket and gave chase.”

The two officers with him, Billy Valentin and Kendrick Isaac, began running, too.

The guards overtook Mr. Booker and took the man down in front of a parking lot.

Mr. Valentin, 37, a 12-year veteran of the force, said, “He actually didn’t see it coming because he was looking at the officer with the gun, and we came from behind.’’

When Mr. Booker reached the group, he began shouting at the robber: “Not in our city anymore! These days are over!”

Mr. Valentin and Mr. Isaac were recently selected to be guards for Mr. Booker, who recently received death threats from gang leaders in prison.

“These guys, who obviously sprint faster than their mayor, saved a situation from getting far worse,” Mr. Booker said with a laugh.

“I was embarrassed by my own security detail, which I will never forgive them for.”

He said the police arrested the man and took him into custody.

The suspect did not have far to go. Police headquarters was around the corner, only a few buildings down from City Hall.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[NYatKNIGHT]

Go Cory, you badass.

[Kris]

July 17, 2006
Rail Spur Brings Downtown Newark a Taste of Its Past
By RONALD SMOTHERS

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/07/17/nyregion/17rail.large1.jpg
In downtown Newark, unveiling a rail line to entice visitors, and development.

NEWARK, July 14 — With the scraping of metal wheels on metal track and the occasional sparking of pantograph against overhead catenary wires, Newark’s rail transit system on Monday will usher in what many hope will be a new era.

A new mile-long light rail spur downtown, which took four years to complete, is to start service between the city’s two commuter train stations and make parts of the city more accessible.

The $207 million spur — in some ways a throwback to the city’s past — will take about 10 minutes for a ride starting underground at Pennsylvania Station, the city’s main rail hub, and traveling northward to the Broad Street Station, much of the time at street level.

A northbound train will make intermediate stops at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, at Atlantic Street and at Riverfront Stadium; a southbound train will make intermediate stops at Washington Park and at the arts center.

It is the stretch above ground that is reminiscent of the 1930’s and ’40s, when Newark was a far more vital city. At that time trolleys, sleeker ancestors of today’s angular light rail cars, crisscrossed the city powered by a tangle of overhead cables serving lines converging on the city from the Oranges, Maplewood, Bloomfield — even from as far away as Paterson.

More than looking to its past, however, the new line represents this struggling city’s future, opening the northern end of the downtown to commercial, retail and residential redevelopment.

Developers note that the Morris and Essex and Montclair-Boonton rail lines, which pass through Broad Street Station on the way to Manhattan, carry large numbers of Newark commuters who will now have an easier way of reaching downtown.

“It was so difficult getting from the Broad Street station to downtown by bus on the streets,” said Joseph North, the general manager of New Jersey Transit’s light rail operations and the Newark subway system.

Marc E. Berson, a major developer in the city and owner of the Newark Bears, the minor league baseball team that plays in Riverfront Stadium, said: “This area of Broad Street has always been one of the gateways into Newark because of the train station and Interstate 280. And if I could script what happens with this new light rail spur, I would like to see it be retail and downtown residential.”

For now, Mr. North said, the transit agency expects the spur to attract 4,000 riders a day in the first year of operation. Trains will leave every 10 minutes during rush hours and every 15 minutes at other times.

Mr. Berson, the president of Fidelco Realty, which has purchased a 17-story office building near the Broad Street station, is not alone in envisioning a period of redevelopment.

The Newark campus of Rutgers, which also owns several parcels near the northern end of the spur, plans to move its business school, along with 3,500 students, into 11 floors of Mr. Berson’s building and build dormitories for undergraduate and graduate students.

Steven Diner, the provost of the Newark campus, said that the expansion plans had been on the drawing board for a while, and that the light rail spur was “icing on the cake.”

Saying the Broad Street train station is the most underused “asset in downtown Newark,” Mr. Diner noted that besides Rutgers, such institutions as the Newark Museum and the Newark Public Library also had ambitious expansion plans in the area.

In addition, Berkeley College, a 75-year-old school that began as a secretarial school in East Orange, has embarked on an $11 million project to renovate a low-rise building on Broad Street across from the spur’s Washington Park stop.

Developers and civic leaders here, who have agonized over the halting pace of redevelopment over the last two decades, long talked about creating a “critical mass” of redevelopment activity that would turn the crawl into a walk and then a trot.

Lawrence P. Goldman, president and chief executive of the Performing Arts Center, said in an interview that the center, which is currently seeking a developer to put up a mix of 250 residential and retail properties on land across the street, had been approached by builders who were aware that the light rail was coming.

“When you add light rail to subways, buses and commuter rail lines, you build a level of excitement and uniqueness,” Mr. Goldman said. “It fills the air with a sense of urbanism that distinguishes this city from the experience of the Short Hills Mall.”

In aging cities like Newark, major construction projects are often complicated by a variety of costly hurdles involving the environment and landmarks. In this case, age and history acted in the city’s favor, said Les Eckrich, New Jersey Transit’s senior director and project manager of construction for the spur.

For one thing, Mr. Eckrich said, the transportation agency was able to use part of a tunnel that as far back as 1929 served the vast network of trolley lines operated by Thomas N. McCarter, the chairman of the Public Service Corporation, which later became Public Service Electric & Gas.

At that time, the tunnel ran to the trolley terminal, a hub for lines that once served two million people with about 2,400 cars.

In addition, Mr. Eckrich said, the agency was able to use some of the old right-of-ways for the light rail tracks and overhead power lines and did not have to acquire or disturb expensive downtown real estate.

Through a competition, the agency settled on public art that will be displayed at each of the six stations. At the Atlantic Street station, near a post office, windscreens will resemble a franked postage stamp.

At the arts center station, a 100-yard-long terrazzo walk will have 26 bronze plaques honoring New Jersey performers, from Sarah Vaughan and Abbott and Costello to Bruce Springsteen and Queen Latifah.

In addition, Mr. Goldman said the transit agency showed an appreciation for the performing arts by installing a “floating track bed” atop several rubber disks at the arts center stop — in an effort to keep passing trains from disturbing a performance or recording session.

“You didn’t want to create a situation,” he said, “where during the pianissimo you suddenly have a concerto for orchestra and light rail.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

[Dagrecco82]

www.localsource.com

Makeover planned for Market Street


Wednesday, June 21, 2006 2:09 PM EDT

VAILSBURG, NJ - One of Newark’s busiest streets and most important intersections will get a completely new look, as the Department of Engineering launches the resurfacing, beautification, and drainage improvement of Market Street and Elizabeth Avenue. The Market Street Improvement Project will include the famous Historic District Four Corners intersection of Broad and Market streets. The construction is expected to begin Monday.
The construction project will begin with the ceremonial demolition of one of the four newsstand/bus shelters at the Broad and Market intersection, at 11 a.m. Monday. The Four Corners is one of the busiest intersections in New Jersey and this crossroads dates back to Colonial times.

“Market Street is one of our city’s oldest and most important thoroughfares. It dates back to Capt. Robert Treat and his Puritan founders. Now we are restoring this great street to its deserved grandeur, while making it safe and convenient for today’s motorist and pedestrian,” said Mayor Sharpe James.

The project will also improve the Elizabeth Avenue corridor from Grumman Avenue to Meeker Avenue. The city proposes to make improvements to Market Street from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Ferry and Mott streets. These changes will help to ease congestion and reduce diversions to residential areas by improving traffic flows on Market Street, according to engineering director James D. Adams, whose department is overseeing the project.

A landscaped median will be created between Prospect and Madison streets, along with a left-turn lane south of Raymond Boulevard onto Prospect Street. Market Street will also see new trees, decorative lighting, reconstructed sidewalks, utilities and drainage under the program.

The reconstruction project, which is being done by DeFino Contracting of Clifwood Beach, is being funded by a $3.51 million grant from the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration. Construction is expected to be completed by June 2007.

[ablarc]

Sounds like Newark is finally turning around. Let's hope the momentum isn't lost.

[stache]

and it's pretty ridiculous imo. They have two stops that are a block apart from each other -

[JCMAN320]

The goal is to link Broad Street Station and Penn Station.

[stache]

I was walking by 1180 last week and I noticed the initials 'LN' over the main entrance on Raymond St. Does anybody know the original name of this building?

[Dagrecco82]

Lefcourt Newark.

[stache]

Thank you Dag! : )

[Dagrecco82]

my pleasure :)

[G_Money]

Anyone move into 1180 yet? From what i understand Aug 1 was the date?

[kevin]

Anyone move into 1180 yet? From what i understand Aug 1 was the date?

I moved in, but I still have a lot of work to do on my apartment unpacking and all...

[Mix106]

I need more Newark stuff people!
I am addicted to the city... :p

Be cool![][]

[JCMAN320]

NYPD deputy commissioner to be named Newark's top cop

Newark Mayor Cory Booker has chosen a high-ranking New York City police official to become his police director, the most important appointment for an administration whose success hinges on its ability to cut crime.

Garry McCarthy, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of operations, will be introduced by Booker in a press conference tomorrow, capping a tough week that began with four murders over the Labor Day weekend and continued with statistics showing a rising number of killings, shootings and gun seizures. Yesterday, two Newark officers plead guilty to dealing prescription painkillers.

The Bronx-born McCarthy said in an interview today that after a successful 25-year career in the NYPD, he was geared for the challenges facing Newark.

“Everything I’ve looked at tells me the community here in Newark has been held hostage by crime for at least three decades,” McCarthy said. “Mayor Booker is looking to reform city government within Newark and create a positive outlook here, and it really feels like a good time to get here and make a difference.”

McCarthy, 47, started as a beat cop in the Bronx and rose through the ranks by taking on some of the department’s toughest assignments. He led precincts in troubled sections of Washington Heights and Brooklyn and was a commander in the internal affairs division before his promotion to deputy commissioner nearly seven years ago.

McCarthy said he plans on applying his experience from all those places. He said he will attack violent crime by focusing on drugs and guns, work on improving the community’s relationship with the police department and be vigilant in rooting out officer misconduct.

Booker said that’s exactly what he wants.

“Hearing those things from him was essential because we want to restore not only integrity in our police departmant, but also let the community know they have someone strengthening the integrity of our office,” Booker said. “Garry is a cop’s cop who also served in leadership positions in internal affairs, so that will help us.”

Married with two teenaged daughters, McCarthy said he will retire from the NYPD after giving 30 days notice, take his city pension and move to Newark for the director’s post. Booker said he hasn’t set McCarthy’s salary yet.

Although the appointment must be approved by the City Council, Booker doesn’t expect any opposition. Most of the council members have already interviewed McCarthy.

Read tomorrow's Star-Ledger for the first interview with McCarthy

[OmegaNYC]

This is great for Newark. I was watching on the news, that Newark was rank #10 last year, for the highest amount of murders in the country (I believe the # was 97) . For a city of only 280,000, that is way too high.

[JCMAN320]

RU business school invests $31.5M in the future
It buys 11 floors of Newark high-rise

Saturday, September 23, 2006
BY KELLY HEYBOER
Star-Ledger Staff

Rutgers University sealed a complex $31.5 million deal yesterday to purchase 11 floors of a Newark high-rise to house its business school.

The Rutgers Board of Governors voted unanimously to purchase part of 1 Washington Park despite the school's recent financial troubles. The university will spend an additional $51.5 million to renovate and expand the space at Broad and Washington streets.

Al Gamper, chairman of the Rutgers board, said he had no qualms about spending money on the business school while the state university is laying off employees, canceling classes and eliminating sports teams to plug a budget hole.

"You have to plan for the future," Gamper said following yesterday's meeting in New Brunswick. "We're not closing the doors here just because our budget got cut."

The red-brick tower, which housed Verizon until a few years ago, is owned by Fidelco, a real es tate and development firm. The company's chairman is Marc Ber son, a Rutgers-Newark graduate and one of the school's big donors.

Berson resigned his unpaid seats on two Rutgers boards last year to help deflect any questions about the ethics of the negotiations. He had served on the Rutgers Board of Overseers, which helps manage some of the university's finances, and the Rutgers Business School's Advisory Board, a panel that counsels the school's dean.

Berson estimates he has contributed about $500,000 to the university and helped raise millions more for the Rutgers-Newark law school, which named a board room after him.

Gamper said he saw no problem with the deal.

"He had the space. We bid on it. We got appraisals," Gamper said. "I don't see any significant conflict at all."

Berson did not return calls to comment. But his spokesman re leased a statement praising the purchase as "a win for the university, a win for the city of Newark and a win for the taxpayers."

Berson's company bought the 17-story office building three years ago for $26.5 million. The complex deal finalized yesterday calls for Rutgers to purchase floors 1 though 11 in a condo arrangement. Fidelco will continue to own floors 12 though 17 and rent them out as office space.

The university and the developer spent months haggling over the price after each side's appraisers came in with values that differed by several million dollars, Rutgers officials said. An independent appraiser was brought in to offer a third opinion, which was used to reach the $31.5 million purchase price.

Rutgers will pay for the building using an $18 million special state appropriation that was secured during the state budget negotiations with the help of former Gov. Richard Codey, campus officials said. Another $7 million to $10 million will come from federal tax subsidies offered for urban development projects.

The remaining money to purchase the building and fund the $51.5 million renovation will come from private donors and $40 million or more in borrowing.

The business school, which is currently housed a few blocks away, will move to the new building after renovations are completed in about three years, said Rutgers- Newark Provost Steven Diner. The 15,000-square-foot addition will include a new glass lobby added to the front of the building facing the Newark Library.

The move will help free up classrooms and offices in other campus buildings, Diner said.

"Rutgers-Newark has a unique opportunity to expand space for other current and future uses of the campus, including plans for increased enrollment," Diner said.

Campus officials have preliminary plans to continue expanding Rutgers-Newark's campus north.

The new business building is less than a block from 15 Washington Ave., the former home of Rutgers- Newark's law school. The school plans to turn that now-empty building into graduate student housing, though campus officials are still months away from choos ing one of four plans submitted by developers for the project.

Diner said Rutgers-Newark also will consider turning the parking lot behind the old law school into a block-long parking garage complex with street-level retail stores and rental apartments along University Avenue. Two nearby parking lots on Orange Street, located across from the former Westinghouse factory, also may be used to build new dorms.

Kelly Heyboer covers higher education. She may be reached at khey boer@starledger.com or (973) 392-5929.

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Defying expectations

Friday, October 13, 2006
BY PEGGY McGLONE
Star-Ledger Staff

Think you know Newark? If your images of the city are limited to Alvin Ailey at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the planetarium at the Newark Museum and garlic shrimp at the Spanish Tavern — well, think again.

If you've visited the Essex County seat recently, you know about the rich cultural district that's formed around Military Park, sparked into growth by the opening of NJPAC nine years ago.

If you work here, you might know the maze of lobbies and walkways inside the Gateway complex near Penn Station, where cafes, lunch spots and shops — connected by walkways suspended above the sidewalk — cater to businesses located in the office towers.

But do you know about the city's burgeoning artist enclave, where live/work studios and sleekly modern galleries are bursting with the region's best contemporary work?

Do you think of the bustling streets of downtown, where the chirping of walkie-talkie cell phones blends with the heavy bass of hip-hop tracks from store sound systems; the bite of incense with the fog of bus fumes? Where kids in high-end hip-hop duds window shop alongside moms pushing carriages? Do you think of Newark the university town, where college students study and play, and nightclubs cater to both Latin dancers and Goths?

The state's largest city is unquestionably its cultural capital, the home to a critical mass of performance and visual arts organizations as well as a Portuguese enclave, known as the Ironbound, that is welcoming new cultures with remarkable speed.

Newark has its challenges, sure. An increase in street crime has caused concern in many neighborhoods and for many arts groups. Protracted delays in downtown housing developments have deflated much of the momentum created by the opening of NJPAC.

But there are positive signs. The new light rail system now connects the districts of the city, and t