Orange is ripe for picking
Developers investing millions in city
Friday, October
06, 2006
Star-Ledger Staff
Investor Philip Fierro
says the closed Hospital Center in Orange is a great locale where his Metrovest
Equities real estate investment firm plans to create a $100 million
market-rate condominium development next year.
George M. Capodagli,
the head of Capodagli Property Co. LLC in Pompton
Plains, is gearing up to pump some $70 million into creating new market-rate
housing and ground-level retail stores along Orange's east Main Street
redevelopment corridor.
Patrick Morrissey, head of a nonprofit
housing redevelopment effort in Orange, along with two developer partners, feels a
five-block- long stretch in Orange's Valley section, near NJ Transit's Highland Avenue train station, is ripe for a more than $100 million
economic rebirth.
The three individuals, as well as others --
including Edward Martoglio, a principal with the
RPM Development Group, a Montclair real estate firm that plans to soon
construct its first all market-rate condominium development at the northwest
corner of Central Avenue and South Center Street -- on Wednesday described
Orange as a great place to invest.
The developers made their comments during a
chartered bus tour of five redevelopment areas in the city, as well as Orange's exclusive Seven Oaks area near the South Orange border.
The tour, sponsored by the city of Orange, was conducted for the benefit of visiting
representatives of the state Department of Community Affairs, the state
Department of Transportation, the state Department of Environmental
Protection, the New Jersey Commerce, Economic Growth and Tourism Commission,
and NJ Transit, as well as the media.
"We're an older community," Mayor
Mims Hackett Jr. said of Orange,
which is celebrating its bicentennial this year. "These redevelopment
efforts are going to enhance our tax base, provide employment opportunities
and help fulfill our master plan, updated earlier this year."
Morrissey's nonprofit Housing and
Neighborhood Development Services Inc. (HANDS), the Alpert Group LLC of Fort
Lee and Iron State Holdings LLC, a division of the Applied Development Co. of
Hoboken, are a partnership preparing to start construction in January.
The proposed Valley Arts Walk is a
comprehensive redevelopment effort that includes transforming the former F.
Berg Hat Co. factory, the famed Stetson hat manufacturing family's No Name
Hat Factory site and the 3 1/2-acre Monroe Calculating Co./Harvard
Printing firm site into mostly market-rate condominium residences, artists
lofts, studios and retail space. The project already has ignited
redevelopment interest throughout the city, Morrissey said.
The largest planned economic development
project in Orange -- the demolition of the closed Hospital Center at Orange
complex, including the main hospital on South Essex Avenue, the former
orthopedic hospital on Central Avenue, and the Winifred B. Baldwin School of
Nursing, the Metcalf Institute of Radiation/Oncology and the Professional
Building on Henry Street -- launches next year.
That is when Fierro,
executive vice president of Metrovest, said his New
York City-based firm will launch its $100 million effort to tear down all of
the brick facilities on that huge parcel.
In its place, Fierro
said, Metrovest will create "The Avenue at
Orange," consisting of 375 market- rate condominium residences of
modern/contemporary design, 19,000 square feet of retail space, a
12,000-square-foot community center, a pool and gym, and 15,000 to 18,000
square feet of parking.
The Orange site's proximity to NJ Transit's Orange Station in Tony Galento
Plaza, Route 280 and bus lines makes the location perfect
for what is called adaptive reuse, Fierro said.
Right now, Metrovest
is busy in Jersey
City, where it
has begun converting the former Jersey City Medical Center complex into a mini-city of 1,100 condominiums,
apartments, shops and restaurants that will be called the Beacon, Fierro said.
Describing Orange as a vibrant urban community, Capodagli
said his development firm's goal is to demolish a number of structures along Main Street, between Hillyer Street and Glenwood Avenue, at the East Orange border, and to construct 350 condominium units that
range from 900 to 1,500 square feet.
"It's going to be a product that's
very, very in tune to what's happening now," Capodagli
said.
That same firm also is going to redevelop a
two-block tattered- looking section of Scotland Road, adjacent to NJ Transit's Highland Avenue rail station. Capodagli
said he plans to tear down structures there and replace them with 145
market-rate condominium residences.
Since its first Orange housing venture in 1985, developer Martoglio
recalled, RPM has busied itself with constructing mostly low-to- moderate
income housing and has built two mixed-housing developments in East Orange.
Now, Martoglio
said, "we're ready to try and do something new."
RPM is ready to build its first all
market-rate condominium midrise building on a
vacant one-acre parcel at Central Avenue and South Center Street. A
four-story condominium -- containing 45 residences -- is planned, Martoglio said.
Each unit will feature two bedrooms with
two bathrooms, range from 1,200 to 1,300 square feet and have two parking spaces,
Martoglio said.
"Recreation space will be in the
back," Martoglio said. "Hopefully we'll
be doing this in the spring. It's a very, very exciting time in Orange."
Kevin C. Dilworth covers
East Orange and Orange. He can be reached at kdilworth@starledger.com or
(973) 392-4143
