"BRICK CITY" THE OFFICIAL NEWARK DISCUSSION THREAD

[Newark88]

Advocates push for housing affordability, rent control in a changing Newark

Renderings of the new development in downtown Newark called Mulberry Commons. (City of Newark)
Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com


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By Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on February 16, 2017 at 8:57 AM, updated February 16, 2017 at 9:52 AM



NEWARK -- Housing advocates and residents on Wednesday demanded the city strengthen protections for low-income residents so they can afford to live amid rising development.

Housing advocates gathered outside Newark City Hall Wednesday to ask the City Council to stregthen the inclusionary zoning ordinance and reject changes to the rent control ordinance. (Karen Yi| NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Gathering at a press conference outside City Hall and later giving impassioned speeches before the City Council Wednesday, advocates pushed tougher rules for new developers and asked the council to reject changing the city's rent control laws.

"We're not against what's happening," said Deborah Smith-Gregory, president of the NAACP Newark branch. "We have to make sure that the residents that are being displaced and threatened, they have a home, too."

The council deferred the ordinance that would require new housing developers with 30 or more units to provide 20 percent affordable housing. East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador said he wanted more time to review concerns.

Tenant leaders have asked for the inclusionary housing ordinance to apply citywide immediately, instead of being phased in. They also want the ordinance to give Newark residents housing priority and broaden which developments must comply.

"The whole notion of what the future of Newark is, is embodied" in the ordinance, said Joseph Della Fave, executive director of the Ironbound Community Corporation, which worked with the city on the ordinance but wanted it to be stronger.

"Whether or not we will grow for all people or only for special people with high incomes."

The proposal to amend the city's rent control ordinance, however, was approved on first reading as members of the public booed the vote.

Responding to the pushback, South Ward Councilman John Sharpe James said the changes would boost protections. "We're not watering it down, we're strengthening it," he said.




Newark to builders: Low-income housing will be required

The City Council Wednesday agreed to require developers to provide affordable housing units for residents if they want to build in Newark.



The ordinance, passed in 2014, makes it harder for landlords of rent-controlled buildings to spike rents once units become vacant.

That means a landlord can ask the city to raise a unit's rent by a maximum of 20 percent if the landlord spends $5,000 multiplied by the number of rooms in the unit to rehabilitate the residence.

The proposed changes would reduce that threshold and allow landlords who spend eight months worth of a unit's rent to ask for up a 20 percent increase in rent. Rehabilitation work worth six months of rent would allow a 15 percent increase and work worth four months of rent would allow a 10 percent bump.

James said when housing advocates and city leaders drafted the original ordinance, all parties agreed the rehabilitation threshold for landlords was too high. He said the changes also clarified that rehabilitation needed to be substantial for landlords to qualify for rent increases.

"They cannot be common or regular, normal repairs," he said.

But tenant leader James Powell, who lives in the Central Ward, said those changes "would raise the amount of rent so much and reduce the amount that's needed to get this rent increase that it's basically a free gift to the landlord."

"This is a national crisis, this is not something that is just happening in Newark," said Eric Martindale, acting chair of Newark Tenants United. "The biggest worry, as far as the rent control: We don't want any rollbacks in the protections that we won in 2014."

Other residents from Terrell Homes, a Newark Housing Authority property that is expected to close, also rallied against its closure as the public chanted, "Homes for all!"

The council is expected to vote on both the inclusionary housing and rent control ordinances on March 1.

Advocates push for housing affordability, rent control in a changing Newark

 

[Logmanjames]

The oranges checking in

 

[Newark88]

Site of Rutgers Newark construction project was possibly former graveyard

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Construction workers at the site of the planned Rutgers Honors Living-Learning Community in Newark on Tuesday on Washington Street between New and Linden Streets. February 21, 2017 (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com


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By Noah Cohen | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
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on February 22, 2017 at 7:30 AM, updated February 22, 2017 at 7:47 AM



NEWARK -- The Rutgers University-Newark construction site where fragments that appeared to be human remains were recently discovered was possibly used as a graveyard dating back more than 200 years, officials said Tuesday.

The potential human remains were unearthed at the Washington Street parking lot, between New and Linden streets, where Rutgers is working to build a $70 million mixed-use residence hall, retail space and classroom facility called the Honors Living-Learning Community.

Rutgers acquired the property in January 1997 from Maiden Lane Auto Park, which was already running a parking lot on the site, according to Peter Englot, Rutgers-Newark's senior vice chancellor for public affairs and chief of staff.

Historical records reviewed by Rutgers officials indicate the central portion of the block -- surrounded by Washington, Halsey, Linden and New streets -- may have been a graveyard dating as far back as 1808, when the First Methodist church built the Wesley Methodist Chapel, according to Englot.

In 1926, 136 burials were disinterred from the cemetery and moved to Hollywood Cemetery to allow for the property to be used as a parking lot for the Hahne & Co. department store, which was located nearby on Broad Street, according to reports in the Newark Sunday Call newspaper, cited by college officials.

Englot on Monday said Rutgers filed plans with the state's Historic Preservation Office that accounted for the possibility of finding human remains during work to build the state-of-the-art student residence hall and learning community.

"Such remains have been found on a portion of the site that had been occupied by a church until it closed in 1940; the building was demolished 65 years ago," a statement from Rutgers said Monday.

The Halsey Street Methodist Episcopal Church, which housed a congregation that moved and merged over the years, once occupied the lot, according to Rutgers.

The discovery came in pre-construction phases for the 320,000-square-foot Honors Living-Learning Community, according to campus officials. The project is set to include a 400-bed residence hall, retail stores, classrooms and work spaces.

A team of archaeologists is investigating at the site and work on the learning community project was not delayed, according to Englot.

Rutgers completed day four of a scheduled eight-day "due-diligence exploration" approved by the state historic preservation office, he said.

"At the end of that eight-day period and after a full assessment of the site by our archaeologists, they will present us with their conclusions and proposed course of action," said Englot.

Crews were working at the site Tuesday morning, including one worker who appeared to be using a sifter to examine dirt at the property.

Experts do not yet have enough information to provide details on the findings, Englot added. More information could come next week as the archaeological study continued.

Work at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which opened in 1997, also led to the discovery of former cemetery at the site, according to engineering firm involved in the project.

Site of Rutgers Newark construction project was possibly former graveyard

 

[skeetsinternal]

The oranges checking in

You from EO? You see that new Huddle house on Main Street? I hate that shop rite over there.

@Newark88 You see over by that new Shoprite....that whole area is transforming and I heard all the way to rt 78 down Bergen gonna be gentrified

 

[Newark88]

You from EO? You see that new Huddle house on Main Street? I hate that shop rite over there.

@Newark88 You see over by that new Shoprite....that whole area is transforming and I heard all the way to rt 78 down Bergen gonna be gentrified

Yea they just put up a new McDonald's by there too. And those new lofts are up as well.

 

[YvrzTrvly]

Its only a matter of time before rent is 1590 a month in newark.

Over my three years at njit you can see the development starting to creep in.

 

[skeetsinternal]

Yea they just put up a new McDonald's by there too. And those new lofts are up as well.

The plan is to make Rutgers like NYU catering to the colleges (NJIT Seton Hall Rutgers ) with affordable off campus housing. The hockey stadium was the start, access to downtown area is to be expanded via routes from.rt 78,.not just 280. White folKs need to feel safe so driving thru the hood is not an option so they clearing the path and scooping nikkas out that area. The Spanish and Portuguese area ok with their side of town in the iron bound but I suspect buildup of the waterfront is next

 

[Fatboi1]

You from EO? You see that new Huddle house on Main Street? I hate that shop rite over there.

@Newark88 You see over by that new Shoprite....that whole area is transforming and I heard all the way to rt 78 down Bergen gonna be gentrified

Yeah I see that waffle house shyt like Main St. definitely changing shyt is nothing like how it was 10-20 years ago. I used to live on that side of EO.

 

[Newark88]

The plan is to make Rutgers like NYU catering to the colleges (NJIT Seton Hall Rutgers ) with affordable off campus housing. The hockey stadium was the start, access to downtown area is to be expanded via routes from.rt 78,.not just 280. White folKs need to feel safe so driving thru the hood is not an option so they clearing the path and scooping nikkas out that area. The Spanish and Portuguese area ok with their side of town in the iron bound but I suspect buildup of the waterfront is next

Also the Mulberry Commons projects connecting the back of the arena to McCarter Highway and Ironbound

 

[skeetsinternal]

Yeah I see that waffle house shyt like Main St. definitely changing shyt is nothing like how it was 10-20 years ago. I used to live on that side of EO.

Yea shyt is night and day. I remember when EO was white. Newark drug dealers used to buy their houses in EO and Orange Park was a drug dealer carshow like from that movie Paid in Full

 

[Newark88]

Yea shyt is night and day. I remember when EO was white. Newark drug dealers used to buy their houses in EO and Orange Park was a drug dealer carshow like from that movie Paid in Full

The White Castle on Elizabeth Ave use to be like a car show back in the days

 

[skeetsinternal]

The White Castle on Elizabeth Ave use to be like a car show back in the days

I was talking to someone about Newark Police and they was saying that for large city it's not much beef with the police like you see with other cities on the news. I had to think about it

 

[Newark88]

I was talking to someone about Newark Police and they was saying that for large city it's not much beef with the police like you see with other cities on the news. I had to think about it

You have to think, everything is so intertwined here. City officials, police, firefighters, drug dealers, school teachers, etc all mingle with one another.

 

[Logmanjames]

You from EO? You see that new Huddle house on Main Street? I hate that shop rite over there.

@Newark88 You see over by that new Shoprite....that whole area is transforming and I heard all the way to rt 78 down Bergen gonna be gentrified

Don't live there but yeah I see it. I gotta say though I think that east orange will last longer than most parts of Newark with regards to being gentrified

 

[Newark88]

In downtown Newark, an old laundry building becomes 15 apartments

Developers and Newark city officials held a ribbon cutting on Wednesday, Feb. 22, for Halston Flats, a retail and residential project redeveloped from former office building at the corner of Halsey Street and Raymond Boulevard. (Photo by Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media)
Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com


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By Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
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on February 23, 2017 at 7:45 AM, updated February 23, 2017 at 7:46 AM



NEWARK -- Mayor Ras Baraka says Newark has plenty of room for more residents, and the developers at Paramount Properties are eager to help fill it, with their projects and even themselves.

Baraka was speaking at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday for Elizabeth-based Paramount's first completed project in Newark, the conversion of a largely unused former industrial building into 15 apartments and three retail stores at street level, in a rapidly redeveloping downtown neighborhood.

"We've had ribbon cuttings, opened up new spaces, reinvented these spaces, transformed these places, made them available to new Newarkers and the old Newarkers as well, because we have room," Baraka said.


"We have room in our city. We have a lot of room," Baraka added. "Newark used to be a city with about a half a million people. We have about 300,000 at this point, so we have room for at least 200,000 more folks. So, bring them in as quickly as you can."

The developer, Maurice Levy, said the company paid $1.5 million for the Halsey Street building, then put another $2.5 million into gutting it and rebuilding the interior.

"These are the tougher ones, where you're taking an existing building for a different use and it has to be retrofitted," said Levy, whose company has purchased 15 properties around Newark over the past two years.

Levy has not only adopted Newark as the new focus of his business, but also as his new home, with plans to move into the Ironbound neighborhood from Elizabeth.

The five-story, yellow brick building stands at the corner of Raymond Boulevard and Halsey Street, three blocks west of the widely acclaimed Hahne and Company department store site, now completing it conversion to 160 apartments, a Whole Foods supermarket, a Rutgers arts center, and other uses.

Dubbed Halston Flats, the Halsey Street building includes 2- and 3-bedroom apartments ranging from 800 to 1,400 square feet, and renting for $2,000 to $2,500 a month, said Richard Dunn, a Paramount vice president.

A Harvest Table healthy food restaurant and Poke sushi bar already occupy two of the three retail spaces, while a Krauser's convenience store is schedule to open in about a month.

"It's a good location," owner Jagat Parikh said of his fifth Krausers franchise.




Hahne's building opening seen as sign of city's rebirth

Three decades after closing its doors as a department store and Newark mainstay, the Hahne's building re-opened Monday.



High ceilings, exposed brick and heating and air conditioning pipes provide a loft-like feel, with a neon "Yes" mounted above the elevator just inside the main entrance.

"There is power in positivity," said the interior designer, Adele Schachner.

City Councilwoman Gayle Cheneyfield Jenkins said she was so taken by the restoration job that she could not recall what the building looked like before. Councilman Eddie Osborne, a former construction worker who is now an official with the Laborers International Union of North America, congratulated Paramount on "a job well done."

Dunn said the building was constructed sometime between 1894 and 1904, and used by the Columbian Steam Laundry company to manufacture and launder shirts.

Adding to its historic nature, city officials say the building stands at the site of the original terminus of the Morris Canal, which was later used for the Newark City Subway.

Baraka thanked Paramount father and son Solomon and Maurice Levy for investing in his city, and for having the sensitivity and good sense to usher the city's existing structures into a new era of prosperity after decades of hard times and contraction.

To encourage the Halsey Street project, the city granted Paramount a 20-year deal involving payments in lieu of taxes worth 10 percent of the building's annual gross revenues, said Carmelo Garcia, vice president and chief real estate officer for the Newark Economic Development Corporation.

"These are the anchor projects we've been working on to redevelop these blocks," Garcia said. "All you need is one."

In downtown Newark, an old laundry building becomes 15 apartments