Chinese company says it's planning 200-unit condo complex on Weehawken waterfront

Chinese company says it's planning 200-unit condo complex on Weehawken waterfront
The Jersey Journal, 26-Aug-14
By Ron Zeitlinger

A Chinese home builder has plans to develop a mid-rise, 200-unit luxury condominium complex on the Weehawken waterfront, company officials said in a news release.

The Landsea Group said the Weehawken project is part of a $1 billion investment in the three of the countries largest housing markets -- New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Landsea founder and Chairman Tian Ming was scheduled to visit the Weehawken site, which was not identified, on Monday, company officials said in the news release. He said the development there will overlook the New York skyline.

"This visit marks the advent of Landsea as an American homebuilder," Ming said in a statement. "We have already established our presence in Asia and Europe, but there is no better housing market than the United States, where home ownership will always be a part of the american dream and a cornerstone of economic prosperity."

Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner said today he is unaware of the company's plans to build on the waterfront. Last month Lennar officially opened the Avenue on the Weehawken waterfront, a seven-story, 74-unit condo building at 1000 Avenue at Port Imperial.

The Landsea developments in the U.S. will be overseen by the Landsea Holdings Corp., a subsidiary created to manage the U.S. projects, officials said.

Officials said the homes will be built by local companies using domestic materials, and will "cater to American tastes, comfort and satisfaction."

Tian said Landsea also plans projects for Boston and Washington, D.C.

Landsea founded in 2001 and bills itself as one of China's premiere "green" homebuilders, constructing residences with systems for rainwater retention and passive geothermal heating and cooling.

The company is also a founding member of China Green Building Council, and a member of the German Sustainable Building Council and the U.S. Green Building Council, officials said.

Inauguration of Mayor Richard Turner & the Town Council on July 2, 2014

Concerned Citizens Group Challenges Overdevelopment on Boulevard East

Concerned Citizens Group Challenges Overdevelopment on Boulevard East
Hudson Reporter, 17-Aug-14
By Art Schwartz

“So many local people are concerned about threats to the quality of life in this area,” said Joshua Breakstone. “That includes parking up and down the Hudson, the transportation system, overcrowding, the loss of views, of space, of light, the pollution caused by jitneys taking care of the overflow that can’t be handled by the buses.”

Breakstone is the organizer of Concerned Citizens for the Preservation of Quality of Life Along the Palisades. The group was formed to raise awareness about what they perceive as egregious overdevelopment along the Gold Coast, specifically in the region of Boulevard East.

“These developers come in and they come up with these proposals and then you have a group of local people coming and fighting them,” said Breakstone. “Or worse, not knowing and not fighting, and then everyone runs around later asking what can we do, when it’s too late.”

Recognizing that a handful of disgruntled neighbors don’t wield the influence of an organized association with a broader geographical base, his group – “Concerned Citizens” for short – want to bring together residents from various communities with similar issues.

“We are an organization of local people who are working together to preserve the quality of life we cherish along the Palisades from North Bergen to Weehawken,” reads a handout from the group.

To this end Breakstone has taken to the streets with other volunteers, including his wife, to solicit signatures for a mailing list and petition.

“We’re up to between 600 and 700 people,” he said.

Meridia Le Boulevard

The Concerned Citizens group was initially launched in response to one particular development proposal.

“We are specifically trying to fight as much as we can the proposal for between 66th and 67th Street on Boulevard East. It’s a proposal for a 13-story, 157 unit building,” said Breakstone.

The proposed building, known as “Meridia Le Boulevard,” in West New York, would require numerous variances to zoning ordinances.

“Legally speaking, the zoning says if you do not have 40,000 square feet the height limitation for a building is a townhouse,” said Breakstone. “They have 20,000 feet and they’ve proposed 13 stories.”

A full list of the variances that Breakstone says would be required is listed on his website at www.concerned-citizens.net.

The property in question is the site of a former service station, directly across the street from the Versailles hi-rise. The proposal will be coming before the West New York Zoning Board on Thursday, Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall.

It is Breakstone’s intention to show up with a large contingent of concerned citizens to make a statement against the proposal.

“We would like to be able to go to our Board of Commissioners, the governing body in West New York, and say ‘These people are voting in the election in November, and we want to know how you feel about promoting these sorts of projects’,” said Breakstone. “To put pressure on elected officials who don’t seem to be hearing or responding to the needs of the people.”

“Our solution would be to have people in our local governments who are not just promoting a shortsighted agenda of build-build-build and grow-grow-grow,” he continued. “And then if we can elect officials who are responsive to these sorts of questions, then perhaps we can move on to having a legislative solution, more strongly-written regulations on overdevelopment, size, and mass of buildings coming in. Maybe get people with creative solutions to overcrowding and traffic.”

Anti-development?

Of course, by protesting against neighborhood development, the group runs the risk of being labeled exclusionary, of trying to keep others from enjoying the same local benefits they currently enjoy.

“We are not anti-development,” Breakstone said. “This gas station where they’re going to build [in West New York] – we can’t wait for something to come there. But the way that these proposals are pushed through, they are so far beyond the statutes.”

“These limits were put in for very good reasons,” he continued. “These are not local developers. They should have to adhere to our local standards. We would love to see legal development. This is open for townhouses, which is in keeping with what exists in the neighborhood.”

“I’ve heard that people in Weehawken who can’t get on buses because they’re overcrowded are now taking buses to North Bergen, then getting on buses up there and passing by Weehawken again to get into the city,” he said.

“The lifestyle here, when I moved from New York – and this is the story of 75 percent of the people who live in the area – we thought it was going to be open space and beautiful views, where we could own a car, and have an easy commute to New York,” said Breakstone. “And all of that is being rapidly lost due to overdevelopment.”

Concerned Citizens can be contacted at ccpp1@optonline.net.

Mayor Richard Turner gladly accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!

Post by Weehawken Township Government Page.

Weehawken Recreation - Family Kite Night

Weehawken's Formula One Grand Prix race delayed again

Weehawken's Formula One Grand Prix race delayed again
northjersey.com, 24-July-2014
By John Brennan

A Formula One Grand Prix race in North Jersey once scheduled to debut in 2013 now won’t start its engines before 2016 at the earliest.

Carl Goldberg, whose Roseland Property owns most of the land that would be used for the 3.2-mile race in Weehawken and West New York, said Thursday there was “no possibility” of a race taking place next year.

Goldberg’s comment confirmed a report by Forbes that quoted Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive of the Formula One racing circuit, as saying that 2016 would be “the soonest” that New Jersey could be added to an F1 calendar that features about 20 races per year all over the world.

"Somebody said to me the other day that New Jersey seem to have got their act together now and that they have got the money and are all in good shape,” Ecclestone told Forbes. “Whether or not that is true, I don’t know.”

Ecclestone did not refer to Weehawken specifically nor to race promoter Leo Hindery, who in the past has been a target of criticism by Ecclestone for supposedly being unable to raise tens of millions of dollars needed to run a high-end race that could attract an audience of more than 100,000.

On Thursday, Hindery said he was still committed.

“Our team is dedicated to bringing the inaugural Grand Prix of America at Port Imperial to the New York-New Jersey region as soon as possible,” Hindery said in a statement. “We are currently balancing the sport’s own timing demands with other considerations, like building our road course without tapping any public funds.”

The revelation of yet another postponement in the plan to bring open-wheel racing to the Hudson River waterfront comes on the heels of the emergence of a local potential competitor.

Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop recently said that a F1 auto racing track was part of a $4.6 billion proposal by Boston-based Fireman Capital Partners to build a 95-story casino and hotel complex near Liberty State Park. Fulop expressed reservations about whether he would support the track segment of the development, however.

The initial announcement of plans for the Weehawken race came at a major press conference put on by Governor Christie in 2011 at the Port Imperial ferry terminal. The course would run in a circle along the waterfront as well as on the higher ground of well-traveled Boulevard East, which was to receive a pre-race resurfacing to “table-top smoothness.” At that point, the inaugural race was to take place in June 2013. But a year later, Ecclestone announced the race would be postponed for a year. Hindery blamed in part the environmental permitting requirements of holding an event so close to the Hudson River.

Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel took media members on a high-speed ride along the proposed race course in 2012, but once again the race was postponed.

A spokesperson for Weehawken mayor Richard Turner said he is on vacation and a message left with West New York Mayor Felix Roque was not returned.

In the years since the race was first announced, the Weehawken waterfront has seen a flurry of real-estate development. It is unknown what, if any, obstacles that new construction poses for race planners.

According to Forbes, the Grand Prix of America at Port Imperial, as the New Jersey race is known, is the only event in the 64-year history of Formula One to be dropped from the race calendar more than once. But Ecclestone has long made it known that he greatly desires the opportunity to bring one of the world’s most popular sports to the largest market in the U.S.