Decision day on water plant site projects

Originally appeared in the Jersey Journal on Tuesday, December 19, 2006

By JARRETT RENSHAW

The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency Board is expected today to select from two competing proposals for development projects on 10-acre swath of land adjacent to Liberty State Park dubbed the East Side water treatment plant site.

The site, which houses a Municipal Utilities Authority pump station, is bounded by the New Jersey Turnpike extension, Communipaw Avenue and Phillip Street.

G&S Investors pitched their plans to the JCRA board for a nine-screen movie theater, a children's museum and more than 300,000 feet of retail space at the site during its most recent meeting.

The development would attract "national" retail stores and feature three levels of retail and parking, G&S officials said.

They said 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.

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

The 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.

Sam Pesin, president of the Friends of Liberty State Park, has urged the board to accept the Metrovest proposal, arguing it offers the "most compatible" use with the park.

The JCRA meeting, at its office at 30 Montgomery St., starts at 4 p.m.