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Revitalization Around The Rock


The Rock 07

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The most important thing is for downtown Newark to start attracting people to actually live there. This has started with Eleven80 Raymond Boulevard which are now luxury apartments, but it has to continue. If people start actually living in downtown Newark, the number of restaurants will go up and the quality of life will go up.

The development at the Hahnes/Griffith buildings will help greatly, but as you said, the area South of Market Street needs to start getting in on the action. The NJPAC started things off for the area North of Market and the Prudential Center allowed it to really kick into high gear, but now that the Rock is there in the South of Market area there needs to be some development of residential and office buildings there.

According to the plans for the Riverbend District in Harrison, the North of Market Street area of downtown contains only about 2000 residential rental units but also has 60,000 office jobs. With the NJPAC Residential Tower bringing in an additional 250 units and the Hahnes/Griffith development bringing in another 550 that bumps that number up to nearly 3000 units.

In addition there's a plan for a residential complex across Broad Street from the City Hall/Federal Courts area for an additional 400 units.

All in all, as people start moving in to downtown Newark, restaurants will spring up along with alternate entertainment options. Foot traffic will increase and Devils attendance will go up as well. Its like the old story of the guy who opens up a shoe store on a block thats already got one and instead of both businesses suffering they improve until a few years later there are 6 shoe stores in that neighborhood and thats where everyone goes to get their shoes. As people get used to going to downtown Newark for entertainment, attendance at Devils games (and NJPAC events and Symphony Hall events) can't help but go up.

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Also key in all of this is the fact that Harrison will be housing the Red Bulls soccer stadium along with a massive residential/retail/office complex just on the other side of the river. There are people who think this would hurt downtown Newark, but I say it will help because as people move into Harrison they are just as likely to move in across the river to downtown Newark that already has many more attractions than one megadevelopment like the Riverbend District can put out all at once.

That also means that more New Jerseyans (and New Yorkers) will look to the Newark area for sports entertainment. As gas prices increase and people are more inclined to look back towards inner cities with transportation options to their workplaces, Newark and Harrison will be poised to take full advantage with new residential options.

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Also key in all of this is the fact that Harrison will be housing the Red Bulls soccer stadium along with a massive residential/retail/office complex just on the other side of the river. ... Newark and Harrison will be poised to take full advantage with new residential options.

I 100 percent support all of the potential improvements to the Newark, N.J., area.

But I'm extremely dissappointed that Harrison officials sold itself out to yet another New Jersey team using a New York name. IMHO it just throws more dirt on NJ's already tattered image.

http://www.dropny.com/

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I must have just imagined people being in them, then. Arena, Hells Kitchen, the one next to Catholic Charities lot, have definately opened because of the Rock. The one across the street is opening before next season, and there's probably more if I wandered around enough.

Dont think you imagined people going in, but again, those places were already open.

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Arena Bar was open before there was an arena?

Yeah the Arena Bar has been open a year or two before the Rock was even there. It was called something else I believe. There were a few bars around the area including the Chinese restaurant acroos the street from the Arena bar.

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Yeah the Arena Bar has been open a year or two before the Rock was even there. It was called something else I believe. There were a few bars around the area including the Chinese restaurant acroos the street from the Arena bar.

Thanks for clearing that up. And if I'm thinking of the same Chinese place you are, it looks like it survived a massive bombing.

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A lot of those restaurants opened in anticipation of the Arena opening. The Arena Bar, Hell's Kitchen etc. are examples of that. There were a couple of restaurants that tried opening up in anticipation and didn't make it because they weren't able to survive the construction period.

In any event, the Arena's presence has really opened up a lot of eyes to Downtown Newark, many of those eyes belonging to people who would never otherwise find themselves there. It is for this reason that I was so deadset on the arena coming to the city in the first place, because as useful and impressive as NJPAC is, it attracts a much smaller crowd, generally more elite in composition, who for the most part would not be willing to take the step of living in Newark's urban core. It also provided less overall publicity through major media (television and newspaper).

The Rock brought in a much more mainstream crowd into the city. NJPAC's contribution to the city's culinary selection was the Theater Square Grill and Maize: restaurants with $30 entrees. The Rock brought in the bars, pubs and added to the existing customer bases of nearby restaurants. However you want to look at it, it makes sense to bring in an attraction that attempts to bridge the gap between the city's majority population (mostly very poor) and the high end richer people that it is trying to attract. Regardless of their income and demographic differences, people drinking beer and eating a hot dog at a hockey game have a lot more in common with people drinking a 40 and eating fried chicken than people drinking white wine and eating pate de foie gras at a ballet do. Bridging that gap was a very important step for the city to start getting people to move into downtown.

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In any event, the Arena's presence has really opened up a lot of eyes to Downtown Newark, many of those eyes belonging to people who would never otherwise find themselves there. It is for this reason that I was so deadset on the arena coming to the city in the first place.

Right on!

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A new steakhouse and a new sports bar are opening up in the area. The sports bar is right next to NJPAC (60 Park Place) and is expected to open July 1st. The steakhouse is going to be upscale and on Commerce Street (50 Commerce) and will have a rooftop tiki bar with an 'unobstructed' view of Prudential Center. It should open by the end of summer.

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Sounds pretty sweet!

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A new steakhouse and a new sports bar are opening up in the area. The sports bar is right next to NJPAC (60 Park Place) and is expected to open July 1st. The steakhouse is going to be upscale and on Commerce Street (50 Commerce) and will have a rooftop tiki bar with an 'unobstructed' view of Prudential Center. It should open by the end of summer.

Link

Sounds pretty sweet!

Okay, again here I go with the Newark geography questions.

Where is Commerce street? It would be neat if the unobstructed view of the arena is of the side with the massive screen, and it would be even more cool if they showed things on said screen besides advertisements.

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Okay, again here I go with the Newark geography questions.

Where is Commerce street? It would be neat if the unobstructed view of the arena is of the side with the massive screen, and it would be even more cool if they showed things on said screen besides advertisements.

Commerce is parallel with the side of the arena with the giant windows overlooking the Newark skyline. It's two or three blocks from the arena. (You know how the arena is one block to your left once you exit the Gateway? Commerce is one block to your right.)

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Commerce is parallel with the side of the arena with the giant windows overlooking the Newark skyline. It's two or three blocks from the arena. (You know how the arena is one block to your left once you exit the Gateway? Commerce is one block to your right.)

Nice, thanks. That's actually not a bad view of the arena either. As long as it's not the side that's just a faux brick wall, heh.

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I am most likely going to The Eagles concert on Sun. at The Rock, so I'll take pictures of whatever is new or changed inside and out. I will try to get over to the restaurant sites on Commerce and Park as well.

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When Triangle Park gets underway, we should be getting some new towers.

By the way, has anybody heard any updates on Triangle Park? Like have they started or anything?

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When Triangle Park gets underway, we should be getting some new towers.

By the way, has anybody heard any updates on Triangle Park? Like have they started or anything?

What kind of towers and why are they waiting on Triangle Park?

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All that we have seen is this... http://youtube.com/watch?v=HBI5PJoZEFU ( 1:31 in ). It appears to have 5 glass towers in the plan and then restore that tan warehouse next to the park. I don't know what the latest status is. They haven't released any plans since last year. There hasn't been anything mentioned in the papers about it. The only thing that I've heard is in an interview with Jeff Vanderbeek from last month. I forget exactly what he said, but I taped it so I'll check up on it. When I go to The Eagles concert this weekend, I'll see if anything has been started.

Edited by The Rock 07
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I just watched the interview from the April 3rd shootout victory against Boston and what I got from it was that the entrance plaza and Triangle Park were (are) going to break ground in May. I know that the entrance plaza has been started but I haven't heard anything about the park. Mr. Vanderbeek also said that there are 6 redevelopment projects around the arena that are going to break ground in the next 9 months.

BTW: 3,000 views on this topic!

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I don't think they'll be breaking ground in 9 days...or will they? Or have they?

I don't know, they might have, but the Devils usually keep things under cover so we probably won't know anything. If I was incharge of this, I would have a big groundbreaking ceremony. I'll find out whats happening on Sunday.

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All that we have seen is this... http://youtube.com/watch?v=HBI5PJoZEFU ( 1:31 in ). It appears to have 5 glass towers in the plan and then restore that tan warehouse next to the park. I don't know what the latest status is. They haven't released any plans since last year. There hasn't been anything mentioned in the papers about it. The only thing that I've heard is in an interview with Jeff Vanderbeek from last month. I forget exactly what he said, but I taped it so I'll check up on it. When I go to The Eagles concert this weekend, I'll see if anything has been started.

Here, I captured the rendering of the complex from that video:

TriangleParkComplex.jpg

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