Children's museum, movie theater in proposal for site

Originally appeared in the on

Friday, November 24, 2006

By JARRETT RENSHAW

A nine-screen movie theater, a children's museum and more than 300,000 feet of retail space could be on its way to the land surrounding an East Side water treatment facility in Jersey City, according to plans unveiled Tuesday at a Jersey City Redevelopment Agency meeting.

The proposal, by G&S Investors based in Old Bethpage, NY - dubbed the Park Edge Center - would attract "national" retail stores and feature three levels of retail and parking, G&S officials said. In addition, the project would create 2,000 construction jobs and yield nearly $5 million in annual revenue to the city based on property and sales tax revenue projections, G&S representatives said.

G&S is competing against Manhattan-based Metrovest Equities to develop the nearly 10-acre site, home to a Municipal Utilities Authority pump station - which will remain - and is bounded by the New Jersey Turnpike extension, Communipaw Avenue and Philip Street.

Metrovest, which is developing the former Jersey City Medical Center into a massive condominium complex called The Beacon, proposed last month to build a 250-room hotel and conference center at the water pump site.

Metrovest's proposed nine-story Liberty Hotel and Conference Center would feature a stone-and-glass facade and would include approximately 50,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space, a rooftop bar and pool and a public plaza surrounded by retail and entertainment establishments.

The JCRA Board is expected to select from one of the two proposals at its December meeting - and one resident had a suggestion. Sam Pesin, President of the Friends of Liberty State Park, urged JCRA Board members to select the Metrovest plan because it offered less congestion and impact to the park.

"The entertainment complex will bring much more traffic to a park that attracts millions of visitors a year, and we need to protect the park," Pesin said.

G&S recently received approval from the Planning Board to build the second largest building in the city and the state, an 809-unit apartment building in Downtown Jersey City called the Metropolitan. The City Council also granted the project a 20-year tax abatement.