The northwest corner of North Arlington and William Streets in East Orange has undergone a number of changes over the years, from being the site of a hotel that was touted as a “home away from home” to containing a senior living facility to becoming the location of a building collapse.
Now, this property at 89 North Arlington Avenue could be where a new development is built.
A development firm named 89 North Arlington Urban Renewal, LLC is scheduled to virtually appear before the East Orange Planning Board on Wednesday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m. to request preliminary and final site plan approval with variances in order to move forward with the construction of a six-story multi-family structure, according to a notice of hearing.
The building is slated to include 30 residential units while 21 parking spaces would be provided on the premises, which are situated next to Rowley Park not far from one of East Orange’s two train stations.
For more than a century, the parcel was home to a five-story building that was originally used by the Rockefeller Hotel Company as the Marlborough Hotel.
Early on, the hotel advertised that it was in a part of Essex County that was “almost like the Bermudas” and had electric lights and a telephone in every room, according to a book about East Orange by Bill Hart.
Eventually, the Eden House senior living center occupied the building, but the edifice later became abandoned and vacant.
In 2017, a plan surfaced that called for a 33-unit adaptive reuse of the building. Sales records show that TBG 89 N Arlington, LLC of Flatlands, Brooklyn then sold the tract in 2019 for $1.35 million to 89 North Arlington, LLC, which had a listed address in Manhattan’s Financial District.
However, the old hotel building would not last for much longer. In February 2020, a building collapse there made headlines, causing the structure to soon be removed entirely and the property to become vacant.
Note to readers: The dates that applications are scheduled to be heard by the East Orange Planning Board and other commissions are subject to change.
