The Mile Square City’s waterfront features several restaurants sporting Manhattan views, but Jersey Digs has learned that the former home of a shuttered uptown eatery is perhaps surprisingly being converted into a childcare center.
Late last year, construction began at a sprawling space of over 7,000 square feet along 1300 Sinatra Drive. The storefront has been dark since McLoone’s Pier House closed in early 2017, leaving a gaping hole in street life nearby popular destinations like Pier 13.
Considering the built-in kitchen and existing footprint, a new restaurant seemed like an obvious choice to take over the space. But Cresthill Academy, who dub themselves an organic daycare and preschool, has signed a 15-year expansion lease to annex the space into their adjacent storefront as to nearly double the size of their operations.
Ironstate Development, who own the property, and commercial brokerage firm JLL hammered out the details of the agreement and announced it earlier this month. JLL’s Blake Shanaphy says the larger space will allow Cresthill to offer a wider variety of products and services, which will include expanded food services.
“Cresthill Academy is keeping the commercial grade kitchen that was part of [McLoone’s Pier House] the restaurant that previously occupied the new space to provide healthy, precooked prepared meals for busy parents and children,” Shanaply says.
Cresthill Academy also maintains a location in downtown Hoboken and has outposts in Harrison, East Hanover, and Lyndhurst as well. There isn’t a timeline as to when their expansion along Sinatra Drive will be completed, although the sheer size of the space indicates that renovations could take a while.
