Jones Lang LaSalle
Warehouse where there was landfill
San Francisco company seeking to build on old PJP site
Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer
WAREHOUSE REPRESENTATIVE - Robert Cavanaugh, former Jersey City councilman and attorney for San Francisco company AMB, at last Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting. Standing to his left is city planner Robert Cotter.
The site of an underground chemical fire that burned for years is being considered as the location of a massive warehouse.
The old PJP landfill, a 46-acre property between Sip and Duncan Avenues off Route 1/9, stretches to the Hackensack River on Jersey City's west side. It is slated to be the future home of an 883,000 square-foot high cube warehouse to be built by San-Francisco based AMB Property Corporation, an owner and operator of industrial real estate.
The proposed Pulaski Distribution Center would also have 36-foot ceilings, an "early suppression fast response" sprinkler system, 158 loading docks, 344 parking spaces, and 192 trailer storage spaces.
The center is projected to employ 300 to 400 permanent jobs and is expected to operate on 24-hour/7 day a week schedule.
An AMB representative recently that if the warehouse receives approvals from the city, construction will start in spring 2008 and completed by 2009. First, there has to remediation of the site.
AMB is currently under contract to purchase the land from its current owners, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.
But there are concerns by neighbors over the warehouse being built in that particular location, which led to the City Council at last week's meeting tabling an ordinance to allow its construction until residents met with the developers.
City changing zoning
So far, the City Council has helped forward the development of the warehouse by introducing an ordinance at a March 8 meeting to change the city's land development law to allow for such a structure to be built in an area zoned as the city's Waterfront Planned Development district.
Also, the Planning Board, at its meeting on March 14, approved the changes to the land development law so that the City Council could consider approving the ordinance at last week's council meeting.
Several residents living near the proposed warehouse site appeared at the Planning Board meeting. They told the board that they should ensure that representatives of AMB conduct a meeting with the residents on the project.
One of them was Marty Budnick, who lives a few blocks from the site. One of Budnick's concerns was that he remembered the site burning for years.
The underground fire was finally put out in 1985 by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.
"I have my concerns about the project, but I want to hear what the developers have to say before I make any judgments," said Budnick after he spoke to the Planning Board.
City planner Robert Cotter told the Planning Board that there is remediation plans already approved that would include a 30-feet pile of soil that would be a "cap" to prevent leaching of any chemicals, but those plans would need to be changed because of the construction being considered.
Bill Connelly, a nearby resident and brother-in-law of Mayor Jerramiah Healy, said it was a "perfect project at a perfect time."
Jeannette Biondo, who lives with her husband four blocks from the site, said she suffers from industrial asthma and is worried about the construction and the trucks.
The Planning Board requested that AMB representatives meet with the community and that an independent traffic study be paid for by the developers, who had already commissioned their own traffic study.
The attorney for AMB, Robert Cavanaugh, said his clients would agree to the board's requests.
That was confirmed by Ward B Councilwoman Mary Spinello at last week's council meeting, who asked the ordinance allowing for future construction of the warehouse (which would be built in her ward) to be tabled for a future council meeting that would take place after the developers met with residents. The council went ahead and complied with her request.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.
Warehouse where there was landfill
San Francisco company seeking to build on old PJP site
Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer
WAREHOUSE REPRESENTATIVE - Robert Cavanaugh, former Jersey City councilman and attorney for San Francisco company AMB, at last Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting. Standing to his left is city planner Robert Cotter.
The site of an underground chemical fire that burned for years is being considered as the location of a massive warehouse.
The old PJP landfill, a 46-acre property between Sip and Duncan Avenues off Route 1/9, stretches to the Hackensack River on Jersey City's west side. It is slated to be the future home of an 883,000 square-foot high cube warehouse to be built by San-Francisco based AMB Property Corporation, an owner and operator of industrial real estate.
The proposed Pulaski Distribution Center would also have 36-foot ceilings, an "early suppression fast response" sprinkler system, 158 loading docks, 344 parking spaces, and 192 trailer storage spaces.
The center is projected to employ 300 to 400 permanent jobs and is expected to operate on 24-hour/7 day a week schedule.
An AMB representative recently that if the warehouse receives approvals from the city, construction will start in spring 2008 and completed by 2009. First, there has to remediation of the site.
AMB is currently under contract to purchase the land from its current owners, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.
But there are concerns by neighbors over the warehouse being built in that particular location, which led to the City Council at last week's meeting tabling an ordinance to allow its construction until residents met with the developers.
City changing zoning
So far, the City Council has helped forward the development of the warehouse by introducing an ordinance at a March 8 meeting to change the city's land development law to allow for such a structure to be built in an area zoned as the city's Waterfront Planned Development district.
Also, the Planning Board, at its meeting on March 14, approved the changes to the land development law so that the City Council could consider approving the ordinance at last week's council meeting.
Several residents living near the proposed warehouse site appeared at the Planning Board meeting. They told the board that they should ensure that representatives of AMB conduct a meeting with the residents on the project.
One of them was Marty Budnick, who lives a few blocks from the site. One of Budnick's concerns was that he remembered the site burning for years.
The underground fire was finally put out in 1985 by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.
"I have my concerns about the project, but I want to hear what the developers have to say before I make any judgments," said Budnick after he spoke to the Planning Board.
City planner Robert Cotter told the Planning Board that there is remediation plans already approved that would include a 30-feet pile of soil that would be a "cap" to prevent leaching of any chemicals, but those plans would need to be changed because of the construction being considered.
Bill Connelly, a nearby resident and brother-in-law of Mayor Jerramiah Healy, said it was a "perfect project at a perfect time."
Jeannette Biondo, who lives with her husband four blocks from the site, said she suffers from industrial asthma and is worried about the construction and the trucks.
The Planning Board requested that AMB representatives meet with the community and that an independent traffic study be paid for by the developers, who had already commissioned their own traffic study.
The attorney for AMB, Robert Cavanaugh, said his clients would agree to the board's requests.
That was confirmed by Ward B Councilwoman Mary Spinello at last week's council meeting, who asked the ordinance allowing for future construction of the warehouse (which would be built in her ward) to be tabled for a future council meeting that would take place after the developers met with residents. The council went ahead and complied with her request.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 10:16 AM
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