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Revitalization Around The Rock


The Rock 07

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Note to self: Stop walking past Indigo construction for a few months

That was a guess, but with the huge pipes along the side of the building it's not out of the question. A couple of the abandoned buildings near the Rock had some asbestos before they were gutted/torn down. Just don't sneak inside the place and you'll be alright lol.

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Ya, the developers for the Indigo are the same that did the Brick City building so I'm very pumped about the hotel. I was driving on 1&9 last night and I couldn't help but wonder what downtown Newark would be like if all those hotels were there instead of the highway.

Extra sleazy? lol

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sorry I was referencing the stretch on the north side of the airport where they have a sheraton & hilton. As for being sleezy, Downtown Newark already has the Carlton so that's hard to top.

If youre referring to the airport hotels, yeah theyd look good downtown, but every airport has hotels right next to them, so those would never be downtown. But youre right that type of hotel would look good within the downtown core.

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Not sure how the 3rd picture fits into the 1st picture

Looks like they're two different areas.

http://newarksriver.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/riverfrontworkbook_5_ironbound.pdf

That breaks down the riverfront redevelopment in the ironbound by East and West. The park in the third picture looks like it's already done, and you can see it in the top right part of the "WEST" section. The park in the first picture looks like it'll go in the top right part of the "EAST" section, and they're connected by what seems to be tree-lined waterfront. Seems pretty nice.

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its actually sort of bizarre as it's actually 3 different projects. One being the Army Corps project from bridge st all the way to Jackson st which is still dealing with land acqusition and remidiation. You can see pics of the capped bulk heads right on the top image of the website http://newarksriver.wordpress.com/

The second image is actually the combined sewer overflow right next to Jackson st which is the city's part that goes from Jackson to Christie. The third image is that section of the park (Jackson to Christie st.

The first image is Christie to Chapel which is churning along and will have the ball park, soccer field and basketball courts. Once the parts are completed it gets turned over to the county to administrate like riverbank, Independence and Branch Brook.

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  • 1 month later...

This just hurts...In my idealistic fantasy world, Newark had it's own PROFFESIONAL basketball, hockey AND BASEBALL team.

http://www.nj.com/njvoices/index.ssf/2011/09/mets_hurt_themselves_newark_by.html#incart_mce

one more...and it hurts because Im a Mets fan so this just feels like having your friend stick it to you. I would love the David Einhorn to realize he is a Jersey guy now and fund our own franchise :rolleyes:

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This just hurts...In my idealistic fantasy world, Newark had it's own PROFFESIONAL basketball, hockey AND BASEBALL team.

http://www.nj.com/njvoices/index.ssf/2011/09/mets_hurt_themselves_newark_by.html#incart_mce

one more...and it hurts because Im a Mets fan so this just feels like having your friend stick it to you. I would love the David Einhorn to realize he is a Jersey guy now and fund our own franchise :rolleyes:

I've been a Mets fan a long time, and right now I'm mad at the team for being so horrible, but this has me really pissed off.. Not pissed off to the point that I'll become a Yankees fan, but enough that I really don't give a sh!t about them anymore.. I've been a Rays supporter for about 4 years now, so I think it's time to buy a jersey and attend some games next season at Yankee Stadium

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Interesting to see Prudential look around to see what they might want. I think it would be huge to be able to actually get another building moving forward on Mullberry which would continue it's rise on being a corridor ot the entertainment district. I think a deal like this is ideal because it gives alot of lead time for the owners of the Gateway buildings to find another tennant or rethink their gerbel tunnels. I have always wanted to see a Newport type mall development in the 1rst two floors that combined the lots between Edison and Market so that the retail was facing the street yet still could harness the purchasing power of the offices in the building.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Here this is pretty cool:

http://www.njbiz.com/article/20110919/NJBIZ01/110919824

‘Believers' in Newark have roots in city

Developers adding boutique hotel to Brick City footprint

By Joshua Burd

After Thafer Hanini and Samer Hanini bought their first commercial property in Newark, the brothers found the Washington Street building had deep roots in the city — from a three-story tree that was growing inside.

The discovery came soon after they had scrounged together $315,000 from “uncles, friends, family and some credit cards” to purchase the property in a 2004 auction, Thafer Hanini, 39, said. But the brothers, who knew the value of a hands-on approach, got to work on their first of many rehab projects at dilapidated properties in the city, paving the way for the creation of their company.

Now, Hanini Group, based in the city, is working on its most high-profile assignment in a year of groundbreaking announcements for Newark: a 106-room hotel that will share a block with the Prudential Center. Work on the hotel began earlier this month.

“For the most part, we’ve always believed in Newark,” said Samer Hanini, 37. “We believed in Newark because we see the bones, we know the value of train stations.”

The 12-story Hotel Indigo, a brand of the InterContinental Hotels Group, will be built on the site of the 99-year-old First National State Bank building, at Broad Street and Edison Place. The project calls for preserving the building’s historic character, which is old hat to urban developers.

“If it has historical aspects, we keep that,” Samer Hanini said. “But for the most part, we take it down to the bare bones, to the brick, to the ceiling rafters. We try to get rid of everything, because we like to install all-new mechanical systems.”

The developers acquired the property in a January 2009 foreclosure sale, and hope when the hotel and its rooftop bar open — in time for the 2012 hockey season — its state-of-the-art energy and plumbing systems put Indigo among the country’s first rehabilitation projects to reach platinum status on the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating scale for building design.

“If you look at from when we started to today, you have a bunch of new restaurants in downtown, you have an arena, you have people walking the street,” Samer Hanini said. “It’s starting to change. It’s just a long process.”

The Haninis trace their own roots in the city to their college days in the early 1990s — Thafer attended Rutgers University for pre-medicine, while Samer studied architecture and planning at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Thafer Hanini continued on to medical school and then began a career in medical research, he said, while his brother worked for construction firms in New York and Newark over the next several years.

But even with established careers by their late 20s, the pair continued to thirst for the lives of real estate entrepreneurs, as they had since they were young adults, they said. “Our passion has always been real estate,” Samer Hanini said.

That passion and energy has helped fuel their success, according to industry observers who have closely watched Newark, and describe the brothers as homegrown talent.

“They’re willing to put in long hours and delay the gratification of making money to build up a portfolio of real estate for themselves and their clients,” said Anthony Gibbons, co-principal of Crawford Street Partners, a Newark-based real estate investment and services firm that works on similar projects. He said the brothers’ commitment and work ethic have caught the attention of other developers, as has their strong product and rapport with their subcontractors.

“They’ve done it through the recession, and I think they’re going to come out of (it) poised to do great things in downtown Newark,” Gibbons said.

The brothers learned the value of doing all the legwork as they worked on rehabilitating that four-story building on Washington Street. It took them a year and a half to gut and restore the 8,000-square-foot property into new office space; they sold the property in 2007.

The firm has since worked with investors to acquire and develop about a dozen other properties, they said, mostly mixed-use retail and apartment buildings in downtown Newark. Part of their success has come from having the vision to capitalize on zoning changes made in the early days of the Cory Booker administration, said Adam Zipkin, the city’s director of economic and housing development and board chair of Brick City Development Corp. The zoning code was changed to enable developers to convert downtown buildings into residential space, he said.

“They’re certainly pioneers,” Zipkin said. “They were among the very first developers to see this opportunity and have the faith that if they build it, the residents would come. It was a faith that the city shared, and it has borne itself out.”

Hanini Group’s first major project was the Brick City Bar and Grill, a four-story restaurant and apartment building on Edison Place. The firm began development in 2006, ahead of the Prudential Center’s opening the following year; the bar opened in January 2009.

“They’re honest, they’re creative and they’re energetic,” saidMarc Berson, chairman of the Millburn-based Fidelco Group. The firm is working with Hanini Group to transform the Market Street corridor around the Prudential Center. “Those are all terrific qualities, and their skill sets in this real estate business are maturing.”

“We knew that once we built (Brick City Bar & Grill) we’d be able to get a restaurant that’s going to feed off the arena,” Samer Hanini said. “The arena was vital for the commercial space.”

The brothers said they’re encouraged by Newark’s development in recent years, noting the arena has added to strong amenities such as infrastructure, higher education and cultural centers. And they are optimistic by what’s to come.

“When Panasonic comes in, you’re going to have a thousand new people working. At least 10 percent of them are going to live here — and that’s all we’re asking for,” Samer Hanini said.

taken from njbiz

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here is the latest on Shaq...don't expect the condos any time soon...no market for it http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/shaq_talks_underway_to_bring_n.html

That being said, as Dino BBQ moves along there are going to be a slew of apartments above and next to it that will go in to compliment the neighborhood as it develops. That is also paving the way for a restaurant to go in where the calabash building is which means Edison will have 2-3 more spots (Hotel, Calabash & Dino) in a year or two.

Edited by newarkdev01
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If they can get that little stretch of Market Street to have a good amount of market rate apartments above the storefronts and condos then between that, Teacher's Village on the other side of Market, 1180 and if they could fix some of the issues at Renaissance Towers they'd have a nice little community going over there. That could really be the tipping point for that whole area of downtown.

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here is the latest on Shaq...don't expect the condos any time soon...no market for it http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/shaq_talks_underway_to_bring_n.html

That being said, as Dino BBQ moves along there are going to be a slew of apartments above and next to it that will go in to compliment the neighborhood as it develops. That is also paving the way for a restaurant to go in where the calabash building is which means Edison will have 2-3 more spots (Hotel, Calabash & Dino) in a year or two.

Cool :cheers:

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