A new mixed-use project is planned for a site on the eastern edge of the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood in Jersey City’s Ward F. This new building is coming to a property consisting of 268 Pine Street, 72-74 Maple Street, and 81 Monitor Street in the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan Zone. Records from the the Jersey City Department of Housing, Economic Development, and Commerce show that when completed, the project will consist of an eight-story building with 3,089 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. 104 residential units are planned for the upper floors, and 35 parking spaces are slated to be located on site.
MC Maple Holding, LLC, which was registered in 2015 out of the same building on Henderson Street in Hoboken as Fields Development Group, according to the New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services and NJ Parcels, is listed as the property owner and project developer. Jersey City’s Planning Board approved MC Maple Holding’s request for preliminary and final major site plan approval during its meeting on May 24, 2016.
The property has long sat gated and vacant, and contained a small parking area previously used by trucks. There are views of the Jersey City and Lower Manhattan skylines from the tract, which is just a few yards away from Dr. Lena Edwards Park.
Data from NJ Parcels shows that MC Maple Holding acquired the property in November of 2015 for $2.75 million from a Midwood, Brooklyn-based firm. The company was designated as the site redeveloper in the same month by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency (JCRA), according to agency reports. The JCRA first sought to have the site see redevelopment in 2009, but little progress had been made until the last year and a half.
Across the street from the property, more development could be coming to the site of another lot that had been vacant for decades. Monitor Maple, LLC was designated as the redeveloper of the lot at 65-71 Monitor Street and 260-266 Pine Street in 2015 by the JCRA in 2015, and the company’s plans for a five-story building with 72 units and 879 square feet of ground floor retail space were approved by the Jersey City Planning Board in December of that year. Monitor Maple acquired the property for $1.75 million in 2014, according to NJ Parcels records.
Many other projects have been announced recently in this area near the Liberty State Park Station on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. This comes at a time as transit-oriented-development throughout New Jersey is rapidly increasing, and as vacant lots near light rail and train stations are becoming harder to find.
