The path has been cleared to redevelop a former gas station along Grand Street in Jersey City’s Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood with a project that features a retail component hoping to inject some life into the streetscape.
During their April 26 meeting, Jersey City’s planning board approved an application to revitalize a shuttered gas station at 632-652 Grand Street. Besides the vacant fuel facility, the irregularly shaped parcel also houses a two-family building and paved areas currently used for vehicle storage.
The property has frontage along both State and Bishop streets and is situated not far from Lafayette Park, Whitlock Mills, and Berry Lane Park. The land is owned by a Los Angeles-based company called B.J. Pwer LLC, who worked with Glen Rock-based Bertin Engineering on revitalization plans that would demolish all the current structures.
The approved plan calls for a four-story building that tops out at about 49 feet featuring 2,604-square feet of ground-floor retail space split between two storefronts at the corner of Grand and Bishop streets. The first floor is also set to include a parking garage to be accessed off Bishop Street with space for 22 cars and 24 bicycles.
The remainder of the ground floor consists of an enclosed 1,210-square-foot courtyard for residents facing Grand Street, which is attached to a separate indoor amenity space. The development’s plan for the basement includes an underground water detention basin to assist with stormwater runoff in the area.
The remainder of the complex calls for 48 residential units, breaking down as 12 studios, 24 one-bedrooms, nine two-bedrooms, and three three-bedrooms. No affordable housing component is listed on the development’s application.
The exterior of the building calls for mostly brick in keeping with the area’s industrial aesthetic but includes some cast stone band sections on the top of the first floor and near the building’s roof. The project will utilize some metal components on staircases and install new sidewalks in addition to planting ten street trees where none currently exist.
The property is located within the Morris Canal Redevelopment Area and the planning board allowed zoning deviations related to minimum side yard setbacks, the maximum number of signs, and a “c” bulk variance related to the minimum required setback on the rooftop appurtenance.
Despite the approvals, a groundbreaking date for the project has not been announced.
