NEWARK-Matrix Development Group, mostly known as a suburban player, has taken to New Jersey's cities in a big way, and a 5.7-acre site within this city's Passaic riverfront redevelopment area could be the company's next step to urban prominence. The company is under contract to buy the site, which abuts the new FBI headquarters building currently rising, for a reported $7 million. Public Service Electric & Gas, the state's largest utility, currently owns the property.
While no specific development plans have been announced by the Cranbury, NJ-based Matrix yet, company officials indicate that they intend the project to include mixed uses. According to a published report, that mix could be dominated by something city officials covet most – downtown housing. A hotel would also likely be part of the mix.
Besides snapping up properties in some of New Jersey's smaller cities, notably New Brunswick, Matrix made its big urban splash earlier this year by leasing from the Port Authority of NY/NJ, for 99 years, the Legal Center at One Riverfront Plaza. The PSE&G site is located close by.
Richard Johnson, senior vice president and partner who heads the company's urban initiative, says Newark has what he looks for in a city – physical, political and social infrastructure. “It has the most traditional infrastructure, the guts and bones of an urban area. Newark has the airport, as well as the road and rail network,” Johnson says. He adds that the city, which recently re-elected Sharpe James to a fifth term as mayor, has shown consistency in its political leadership.
Newark's redevelopment plan has generally drawn praise, although a discordant note was sounded at a recent meeting of the Regional Business Partnership of Newark by Lawrence Goldman, president of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The NJPAC sits just across busy Route 21 (McCarter Highway) from the redevelopment site.
“As far as I'm concerned, this is only a start for Newark in terms of planning,” Goldman said at the meeting, asserting that planning efforts over the past two decades had been ineffectual or even misguided. In particular, Goldman expressed concerns over the widening of Route 21, a project designed “to carry trucks through Newark without stopping. But what's going to be done about getting people from downtown, across a widened Route 21 to the waterfront?” he asked, challenging city officials to come up with some solutions.
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