One of Jersey City’s fastest-growing neighborhoods has yet another high-rise in the works as a huge parking lot has a planned renaissance that includes a mixed-use development with a new public plaza.
Just before Thanksgiving, an application was submitted that could bring new life to 499-501 Summit Avenue. Currently a surface parking facility adjacent to the Journal Square Transportation Center, the entirety of the property spans about an acre and backs up to trackage for the PATH trains built beneath the cliff.
The land has been owned since the mid-1990s by Pathside LLC, a subsidiary of Panepinto Properties. The latest proposal submitted by the company calls for a 53-story tower set to rise just over 556 feet that includes a base structure featuring 3,183 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
The plans call for 304 bicycle parking spaces in the building’s cellar plus a valet parking facility with room for up to 140 cars. The application mentions a 3,200-square-foot public plaza, landscaping work, and other streetscape improvements would be included in the plan, which was drawn up by HLW International.
The new tower would boast a total of 607 units that skew smaller under the current proposal, breaking down as 107 studios, 388 one-bedrooms, 100 two-bedrooms, and 12 three-bedroom spaces. The development’s approval would require the city’s planning board to grant a “c” variance, which should trigger Jersey City’s new inclusionary housing ordinance.
Based on that legislation and accounting for the qualifying tier of the project’s neighborhood, 10% of the development’s proposed units, or about 60, would need to be designated as affordable housing.
Panepinto Properties had previously gained approvals to redevelop the property back in September 2016, but those now-expired plans obviously never came to fruition. Renderings of the latest proposal for the land have not been released.
The possible tower falls within a busy area, as the Journal Squared complex is across the street in one direction and HAP Investments has a plan in place for HAP Tower in the other direction, which will add a new community center and park along Summit Avenue.
Jersey City’s Planning Board will need to sign off on the proposal for 499-501 Summit Avenue before any construction begins at the property. A date to hear the property’s application has not been set.
