Over the last decade, the southernmost portion of Harrison has gone from being an industrial district on the outskirts of Newark to a transit-oriented neighborhood with a hotel, thousands of residential units, stores, restaurants, and the Red Bull Arena. This part of western Hudson County, which is currently being referred to as the Riverbend District by developers, is seeing a major increase in development and population in part because of the PATH station that connects it with Manhattan, Jersey City, and Newark.
However, as construction continues on new mixed-use buildings and a replacement for the Harrison Station, there are still several lots in the neighborhood that remain undeveloped. One of the largest of these properties sits just north of Guyon Drive adjacent to the site of the upcoming PATH entrance. Although the site currently contains a private parking lot and vacant industrial structures from the Harrison Warehouse Company, it could look quite different several years from now because this tract could soon be the site of one of the largest projects to ever be proposed in the area.
A new plan for the premises calls for constructing a massive new 2.9 million square foot community in two phases, according to a report by Lower Manhattan-based GRO Architects. Should the Harrison North of Guyon (NOG) project move forward, it would include the town’s tallest building, a 20-story tower with 242,276 square feet of office space, 15,027 square feet of retail space, and a hotel.
Other components of the project call for a plaza near the new PATH entrance, three private eight-story parking garages with 2,200 spaces, garages for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and a three-part residential development with 518 units and 85,628 square feet of retail space. According to GRO’s report, a 25,000 square foot “big box” store, a bowling alley, two “boutique cinemas,” four restaurants, sports bars, and a 26,000 square foot convention center are also included in the proposal, the latter of which is described as potentially being “a significant improvement to the area as neighboring Newark does not have a modern facility of this type.”
Construction could begin in 2019, according to GRO’s website, which states that the unnamed landowner has already been designated as the property’s developer by the Harrison Redevelopment Agency.
