Although not to the extent of neighboring Jersey City and Hoboken, neighborhoods throughout Union City have garnered the attention of real estate developers looking to construct new residential projects. Now, two new buildings are expected to rise in what is one of the country’s densest municipalities.
A four-story entirely residential development is coming to 1301-03 Palisade Avenue, a property located at the northwest corner of 13th Street. When completed, the project, which was approved with conditions in June by the Union City Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), will include two buildings with three residential units each. The site has been vacant for several years but previously contained a three-story house.
ZBA meeting minutes show that the units will be built atop one floor of parking and that a height variance was sought by the developer.
The project was designed by Manuel J. Pereiras of Union City-based Pereiras Architects Ubiquitous. Originally, it was expected to consist of one building with all six units. However, the minutes show that the developer’s attorney, Bianca Pereiras, testified in June that after reading the Union City Re-Examination Report, “we decided to go back to the drawing board and proposed something that was more in line with the desires of the town and that Re-Examination Report.”
Located not far from Colin Powell Elementary School and Tropical Supermarket, the site was acquired by Parsippany, Morris County-based 1301-1303 Palisade Ave., LLC last year for $850,000. New Jersey Transit buses to the Port Authority, Hoboken, North Bergen, and Journal Square serve the area.
Unlike in other nearby municipalities like Jersey City, Bayonne, and Newark, Union City’s Planning and Zoning Boards tend to approve developments with less frequency. Two other recent proposals for six-family buildings, one at 611 39th Street and the other at 513-515 New York Avenue were recently denied by the ZBA according to meeting minutes.
