A Filipino grocery store that was a Jersey City icon for over four decades is being replaced with a new mixed-use development that will add a sizable storefront to the growing Journal Square neighborhood.
Back in 2020, Filstop at 685 Newark Avenue closed their doors. The Philippine grocery market had been a staple of the neighborhood for 46 years, launching in the 1970s to serve the Filipino population of Jersey City that was exploding at the time.
The three-story building that house the grocer quietly met the wrecking ball earlier this year just about a year after an application to revamp the property was greenlit by the planning board.
As part of the approval process, a May 2022 memo was prepared by Jersey City’s historic preservation staff that determined the former buildings on the site “did not appear to possess historical significance or integrity which would prevent their demolition.”
The Filstop revamp is being undertaken by a Jersey City-based company called Cottage Realty Development. They worked with Hampton Hill Architecture on a plan that is bringing a five-story development to the site that will top out at 54 feet.
The 40 residential units at the eventual development will skew smaller, breaking down as 36 studios and four one-bedroom spaces. The ground floor will feature about 4,500 square feet of retail space plus some leasable basement space, continuing the storefront tradition Filstop once filled.
Other features of the development include a first-floor gym, a cellar with leasable storage lockers, on-site laundry, and an elevator. The project does not include any off-street parking component for cars but does feature 52 spaces for bicycles.
Several of the units in the future building will sport rear-facing balconies, while the upper roof will have approximately 1,004 square feet of enclosed amenity space plus 1,500 square feet of roof deck and 1,400 square feet of green roof. The development is slated to utilize a mostly brick veneer façade on its exterior.
The development was granted a single deviation from the planning board for rooftop structure height when gaining approval. A construction timeline for the project has not been released and an inquiry placed by Jersey Digs to the developer has not been answered, but two floors of concrete have already been poured at the property.
