They are actively pursuing a Trader Joes, but that might not come until phase 2 or 3 of the project which is many years away.

If you live in that area then you should mention what you want there so the developers can actively pursue those kinds of retail tenants.

Nothing beats Maloney's meat market downtown. It's clean and fresh even if a little bit on the expensive side.

For the fresh veggies you have to go to the entrance side of the PATH station. The Blue Ribbon bakery is great and little Indian and the Philippine bread house. There are a ton of treasures, just no clean and nice places to go for a drink.

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HAHA!

With any neighborhood, with new people arriving stores will arrive, people forget when I first got downtown the only store we had was c-town and the 24 hour deli on Grove back in the early 90's. The rest of the place looked similar to Ocean ave.

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There are still a few decent places to get food and supplies up JScare. No gourmet stuff but I only got food poisoning once and that over many, many years.

Hey breaking news I finally went to my first Trader Joe?s over the weekend the one in Staten Island. As soon as I walked in the door I knew it was special. Oh how different from a regular Shop & Shop or Pathmark. They have rows of aisles with product stacked on shelves and a diary section, a produce section and cashiers how unique. And the shoppers are sooo different too.

Well I was standing over by the lighthouse (mangers booth for you Pathmark?ers) and while looking over some special organic banana?s grown in good organic compost with a pinch of sand-peat mixture I heard one of the employees in a loud Hawaiian shirt mention something about Jersey City. I immediately asked ..what about JC?

He said Trader Joe?s was thinking about opening a store in an up and coming part of JC.

To my surprise he said Journal Square. Excellent news!!! Now I won?t have to pay the $12 toll on the Bayonne Bridge to get a bunch of ? special organic banana?s grown in good organic compost with a pinch of sand-peat mixture.

I'd like to know where all of these new residents are going to buy groceries. There isn't one deli in the vicinity that doesn't require a tetanus shot prior to entering.

here is an illustration of the proposed Robinhood settlement:

Robinhood settlement illustration

Skunks (which eat up all the mice and rats in the area to our surprise), raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, ground hogs, opossums, various birds, etc.... its a large divided up swath that runs through there.

My dogs get skunked 3-4 times a year. It's not much fun. It is hilarious though watching people so busy texting as they are walking home that they walk right past a skunk walking in the opposite direction. This is when it is getting dark.

Not so much fun when you go to chance the cat that has been crapping in your back yard but it is too dark to notice the stripe. Not so much fun to have your partner look at you the same way he looks at the dogs when they get skunked.

It's wilderness up here and I'm not just talking about the homeless people camping out in the cemetery or the corner liquor stores.

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What kind of wildlife are we talking about? Pigeons? Cast a shadow over the neighborhood...isn't this the CITY. This isn't surburbia...

You can check out what is owned here by either typing in Netter or Robinhood:

http://cityofjerseycity.com/WebTaxInquiry/AccountSearch.aspx

The owner (we don't know if they will flip the property or actually develop it) is giving up what is about 1/3 or a little more of his land to the City. He will not give any money toward creating the park although I bet if and when the property is developed that then will be the time they would want to invest in the Park in order to offer that as a selling point to potential renters/owners.

As it stands now the slope is treacherous where it meets Baldwin. It is a build-able lot, but there would need to be infill. Under the current plan the owner could build six story residential buildings all along there (a Chinese Wall!) is he so desired. This would cast a very big shadow on the neighborhood and evict a tremendous amount of wildlife.

Creating the park would take a lot of money, but it might be doable by the working with the various developers that will be building in the area, especially at the core, help from the Parks Coalition, and fund raising.

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SO happy to see things moving in JS but here are a few more questions?

-Those strips of land along RR tracks are not easy to get away from the RR people. I know people who have tried with no success. I assume he did have success. What is the street address of the ?green along the rail road?? I want to look up the taxes on it and when it was purchased from the RR.

-Is that 1 acre of ?green along the rail road ? flat/level? Or is it just a sharp drop off from the property line down to the RR tracks? Like the rest of the track route through JS?

-If it is not on a slope I find it odd that the owner did not use it to expand his parking lot.

-If it is on a slope is he going to pay the million or so to have a huge retaining wall built to make the 1 acre park level? We don?t want any balls rolling down the slope onto the RR track now do we?

-I will do some investigating this weekend, unless someone on the PATH train can report on the condition of ?the green along the rail road? on their way to or from work.

And let's not forget the ever popular JSq question....

IS ANYTHING BEING DONE WITH THE BIG UGLY LOT IN THE MIDDLE OF JSCARE? ANY PROGRESS? WASN?T IT GOING TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THE CURRENT OWNER?

i'm all for the use of emminent domain for a park...and i don't mind 42 stories - heck i could care less if its 100 stories. of course, i could see why some people in the n'hood might be concerned.

Too bad JC doesn't have community boards like NYC. On 2nd thought, maybe it's better we don't.

I think we should all keep an open mind and attend the meetings before making blanket statements.

For one, the park could not be conceived of in the original plan unless eminent domain was used to seize private property. I don't think any of us want eminent domain invoked and we were pretty clear about that in all of the redevelopment plan meetings we attended leading up to the final approval of the plan.

I don't see this settlement as the City just giving a cranky developer what they want. Chances are good that if this is settled by a judge, let's face it we live in a country were private property rights are paramount, the community might get only 25 stories instead of 42 but we would get no open space.

We get the green space immediately while it is doubtful the rest will be developed within 5 years. In addition, we have open and green space that the developers starting to build in the rest of Journal Square can contribute towards creating. If we go to court then most likely those areas will see some housing that can be up to 6 stories height and block the view and light as well as take away all hope of green space.

There is potential here for the community (meaning a very wide area) to have something of great value. This needs to be carefully weighed and the community and nearest neighborhood should have time to acclimate to the idea through an informative community meeting.

Redevelopment plans change all the time. Lawsuits happen too unfortunately. But here we are and how we handle it will make all the difference.

once again Jersey City caves and capitulates on yet another fully conceived redevelopment plan. like it or not, the city was pretty proud (along with many residents) when the original plan was adopted, now someone sues because they want more and the plan begins to be dismantled. yes, a park is nice, but as a needed amenity, it is or should have been addressed in the original planning documents. now what additional infrastructure and amenities are needed to support this additional up zoning.

its deja vu all over again .....

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Right, because that area is so postcard-picture perfect right now.

Thanks...gee you really do know everything that's going on in JC.

He owns "The green along the rail road" - he'll deed it to the City of Jersey City for parkland.

Ahh I think I see it now.. I went into the JC Tax Inquiry. It looks like two different corporations own all of the land fronting on Summit and fronting on West street. But they both have the same mailing address in Livingston. So that makes more sense it is all to the right of 510 Summit the Summit House. All of the parking lots you see in Google map. The green along the rail road must be owned by Path ot NJ Transit. Funny the JJ piece didn't say anything about West Street.

(owns 2 and 4 West street)

INT'L. CHAIN ENRICO CORP. % STIEBER
160 SO. LIVINGSTON AVE
LIVINGSTON, N.J. 07039

(owns 498, 502, 506, 508 Summit.)

ROBINHOOD PLAZA, INC.
160 SO. LIVINGSTON AVE
LIVINGSTON, N.J. 07039


Where is SammytheT when you need him/her???

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Did I miss something-- does it say they will all be rentals? I'm also unclear on the exact location. Would it be the parking lot next to Sanai's? Anyway, it's good that something's happening in JSQ. I hope it turns out well.

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Yeah there goes the neighborhood.

I google map it but I see numerous buildings..what is getting torn down?

I'm happy new development is coming to Journal Square. 42 story residential towers..hmmm, how many levels will be for parking? I ask because parking in that area is already horrible.

Also, wish these all weren't rentals....

Just to be clear, this is a DIFFERENT tower from the ones proposed for the vacant lot right at the PATH plaza?

The article talks about how it will be the tallest building in JSQ, and requires a variance to go this high, this sounds like an admission that the other towers probably ain't happening?

Great...but they may need to add double-decker PATH trains

42-story residential tower on tap for Jersey City

Published: Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 8:15 PM
Updated: Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 8:41 PM
By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal

A 42-story residential tower may be headed to Journal Square thanks to an agreement between Jersey City and the proposed tower's developer.

The agreement comes after Robinhood Plaza, the developer, sued the city, claiming the 2010 redevelopment plan for Journal Square left Robinhood with "no development potential" for its property near Sanai's Restaurant (the former Summit House restaurant) on Summit Avenue, according to a July 11 memo from city Planner Bob Cotter to the City Council.

In the settlement, the city agrees to allow the Robinhood tower to rise up to 42 stories, giving the developer an additional 17

Full JJ piece?.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... residential_tower_is.html

*** ********

So it looks like Robinhood owns?.498, 502, 506, 508 Summit.

I am guessing the Summit House at 510 Summit is not involved?right?

The Newkirk House, also known as the Summit House, locateed at 510 Summmit Avenue is the oldest surviving structure in Jersey City. The two-story Dutch Colonial building, composed of sandstone, brick and clapboard dates back 1690, when it was known as the Blue Point Tavern. It was cited on a British army map drawn in 1781 for General Henry Clinton during the Revolutionary War.