East Orange Redevelopment

From the Star Ledger:

Big things ahead for E. Orange as $129.4M project gets the OK
BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH

Without comment, the East Orange City Council last night unanimously designated a real estate consortium to finance and create one of the biggest redevelopment projects in the city for decades.

The Evergreen-Halsted Associates limited liability company received approval for a $129.4 million major hotel/conference center, residential condominium high-rise, office tower, two levels of retail stores and a commuter parking facility near NJ Transit's Brick Church rail station.

The proposed complex, which will take up almost an entire city block off Route 280, will be bordered by Freeway Drive East on the north, Evergreen Place on the west, and Halsted Street on the east.

Negotiations are under way with prospective clients that include Hilton Hotel, Red Lobster, Old Navy, Commerce Bank, and a Starbucks-like coffee shop, to be the prime tenants, officials said.
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If the property sale measure is approved, the city will then spend $1.1 million to demolish the exist ing buildings. That would allow Evergreen-Halsted Associates to spend the following two to three years constructing what will be a 140-room hotel, and a 91-unit condominium comprising 56 two-bedroom residences and 35 one-bedroom units.
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The development plans also call for a 120,000-square-foot office tower on the Evergreen Place side of the property, near Halsted Place; two levels of retail space, each 75,000 square feet in size; and a two-to-five level parking deck for 1,100 vehicles used by condominium owners, retailers, shoppers, NJ Transit commuters, hotel customers and workers, and office tower workers.

The entire site is literally across the street -- via the Evergreen Place and the Halsted Street- Route 280 overpasses -- from the NJ Transit train station that offers Midtown Direct express rail service into Manhattan and Hoboken.