Over the last decade, as developers have increasingly sought to adaptively reuse existing buildings or construct new projects in Downtown Newark, dozens of properties in the heart of the city’s central business district have changed hands. Now, two neighboring lots that are located at the corner of two of Newark’s busiest thoroughfares could soon be under new ownership.
Situated between Washington and Military Parks at the corner of Central Avenue, 569 and 571-577 Broad Street have long been in the hands of an LLC owned by North Caldwell’s Musibay family, but likely will not be for much longer. The 22,575-square-foot properties were recently put on the market for $5.5 million by Marcus & Millichap and are already listed as being “under agreement” with a potential new owner. The firm’s listing promotes the site as a development opportunity and claims that “forward thinking developers should strongly consider the subject property to get in on the ground floor of Newark’s redevelopment and the potential of developing a mixed use project in the heart of New Jersey’s largest downtown markets.”
A four-story structure, 569 Broad Street’s ground floor has been occupied for at least a decade by the Panda Chinese Restaurant. The building dates back to 1865, according to National Park Service (NPS) records, and is described as a “modest example of late nineteenth-century urban architecture.” It also contains office space and two apartments on the upper levels, according to the listing.
Next door, 571-577 Broad Street is a two-story building that has been occupied by businesses such as LanMark Juice & Kitchen, Arcadia Florist, Subway, Mi Gente Cafe, Seventy Sixes, and Nujoom’s Lounge. The listing states that there is office space on the second floor of the building, which NPS records show was built in 1900.
The premises are located near plenty of other projects in the neighborhood that have either been completed, are under construction, or are set to get underway in the near future. For instance, just across Central Avenue from the property, New Orleans-based Redmellon Restoration & Development is in the process of converting the five-story Kislak Building and an adjacent three-story historic brownstone into 48 apartments and retail space. Meanwhile, other sites with locations on major corridors remain vacant, including 595 and 601 Broad Street, which are owned by a Prudential subsidiary.
