OK 250-room hotel for site next to Liberty State Park

Originally appeared in the Jersey Journal on Wednesday, December 20, 2006

BEATS OUT MOVIE THEATER PLAN

By JARRETT RENSHAW

The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency yesterday unanimously selected plans for a hotel and conference center for a 10-acre swath of land adjacent to Liberty State Park dubbed the east side water treatment plant site.

Metrovest Equities and its proposal for a 250-room hotel and conference center at the water pump site beat out its lone competitor, G&S Investors, which pitched plans for a nine-screen movie theater, a children's museum and more than 300,000 feet of retail space.

"The hotel and conference center was more compatible with the redevelopment plan, with the Liberty Science Center and with Liberty State Park," said JCRA Executive Director Robert Antonicello.

The nine-story Liberty Hotel and Conference Center is expected to feature a stone-and-glass facade and 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.

However, the project is still a long way from construction, Antonicello said.

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

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