Posted Mar 30, 2023, 3:45 PM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 51,869
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^ It should be.
https://www.nj.com/news/2023/03/plan...ntroversy.html
Quote:
The Newark Central Planning Board on Monday memorialized its Feb. 6 approval of the proposed Arc Tower, a 344-unit rental complex that would rise 520 feet from a quarter-acre lot on the northwest corner of Broad Street and Central Avenue.
“The proposed structure would be the tallest in the immediate area by a significant margin and is nearly entirely glazed,” states a report by the city’s planning staff.
The modern Arc Tower would soar well above Newark’s current tallest building, the 466-foot neoclassical National Newark Building on Broad Street between Commerce and Clinton streets, which for almost a century has topped a nearby 448-foot art deco building at 1180 Raymond Blvd., known as Eleven 80, both built of brick in the early 1930s
Proposed for the heart of Newark’s downtown, the Arc Tower would raise the height of the skyline by 54 feet, or 12%, creating a blue-tinted peak that would glisten in the sun.
“It’s going to be beautiful for the skyline,” said the developer, Israel Weiss.
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Quote:
The building, designed by INOA Architecture of Manhattan, would also provide 69 units of affordable housing, or 20% of the total number of apartments, under a requirement of the city’s inclusionary zoning ordinance. Weiss said all of the affordable units would be in the building.
“We’re really happy to be able to provide such a tower for Newark and all of Newark, even the lower-income people,” said Weiss, a principal with Brooklyn-based Ocean View Capital Management. “Everyone should be eligible to live in such a nice building.”
Weiss said the building would cost at least $120 million, including the $4.3 million he paid for the property. Financing will come from private equity and possibly bank loans, he said. Weiss said he plans to seek a tax abatement on the property.
Weiss’ lawyer on the project, Calvin Souder, said it would take two to three years to build once the city demolishes two low-rise vacant structures on the site. Both declined to speculate on when work might begin.
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Quote:
Historic preservationists and community activists oppose the project, which they say is out of character with the shorter, mostly brick and masonry structures of the surrounding Military Park Commons Historic District.
The tower would stand on a prominent corner, overlooking Broad Street and Park Place, with Military Park to the south, Harriet Tubman Square to the north, and the Newark Museum, Ballantine Mansion, Newark Public Library and Firemen’s Insurance Company Building among other historic structures.
“It could be a nice tower. It’s just in the wrong location,” said Myles Zhang, a doctoral student in architecture at the University of Michigan, who grew up on James Street near the Arc site.
His father is longtime Newark resident Zemin Zhang, the executive director of the nonprofit Newark Landmarks preservation group, which opposes the Arc Tower.
The elder Zhang sent a Jan. 8 letter urging the planning board to reject the project, listing concerns that included the “purchase-for-demolition” of the two Broad Street buildings that could be torn down; the small lot area; the tower’s lack of set-backs from the curb or adjacent buildings; and the speculative nature of the project’s financing in a “shaky economy,” with only the hope of receiving a tax abatement but no assurance of it.
He recalled a New Jersey developer’s ambitious proposal in the 1980′s to build what would have been the world’s tallest building in downtown Newark but became an embarrassment after proving to be a pipe dream.
“Many Newarkers still have memories of the speculative Downtown Renaissance Mall and Harry Grant’s 121-story building, which damaged our city for decades,” Zhang wrote.
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“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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