Development Watch

From the Star Ledger:
Bloomfield mayor backs $200 million housing plan
BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH

As the East Orange zoning board mulls whether to allow a developer to transform the old General Electric industrial complex into market rate condominium lofts and townhouses, Bloomfield Mayor Raymond McCarthy Jr. yesterday endorsed the housing proposal for the East Orange-Bloomfield border.

"It's a project we're looking for ward to, with great anticipation," McCarthy said of the $200 million proposal, called Parkway Lofts, by Prism Capital Partners LLC of Englewood. "It will change (Bloomfield's) Watsessing Center. It will take a business center, that has gone downhill for years, and put a new vitality back into it. We're looking forward to that."
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Granting the zoning variance would pave the way for Prism's 760-unit condominium loft and townhouse complex -- bordered by Lawrence Street, on the site's elongated western boundary in Bloomfield, and North Arlington Avenue, on the eastern boundary in East Orange -- to get going.

That Prism proposal, coupled with a separate 300-unit housing proposal for part of the adjacent and former Westinghouse Lamp Company-turned-Westinghouse Electric Co. site, "will make that area come alive with new people, new ideas, and great new vitality," McCarthy said.

From the Jersey Journal:
Now home really is history

A 19th-century house located at 210 Fourth St. in Jersey City was demolished Monday - apparently without permission from the city's Historic Preservation Commission.

In fact, Jeb Gallagher of the Historic Preservation Commission said the organization didn't know about the demolition work until they began receiving phone calls Monday morning from confused and agitated neighbors who were also unaware of any plans concerning the house.
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"There should be repercussions," said John Gomez, founder and former president of the Jersey City Landmarks Committee, adding that he believes Hamami should face fines for violating a preservation site.