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Maxwell House Developers Commit to 6 Acre Park - Hoboken, NJ


Tuesday, December 9, 2003

Mayor David Roberts announced at a signing ceremony today that Daniel Gans and George Vallone, the developers of the Maxwell House Property, will be donating a new waterfront park to the city of Hoboken. With 10 acres of water and 6 acres of land, this park will be the largest open space in the City. Mayor Roberts called this effort, "The largest Public / Private open space initiative ever in Hoboken".

The park will come complete with the waterfront walkway mandated by the State of New Jersey. Eventually this walkway will extend all along the Hudson River's edge from Fort Lee to Bayonne. Mayor Roberts said that " completion of the Maxwell House portion of Hoboken¥s Waterfront Walkway will add the largest missing segment (over 2,500 linear feet will be constructed) and will put Hoboken in the enviable position of being within just the small fraction of total completion of it¥s entire waterfront walkway".

The six acres of land and open space will have five major components. The first component, a historic recreation of an old fashioned baseball field will be constructed on the very site where most historians believe the first baseball game was played, on July 19,1846.

The second component of the new park will be the complete refurbishment of the Twelfth St. Pier. Once the Twelfth St. Pier building (which rises almost 40 feet above the water and covers the entire pier at present) is removed, it will open up a new view corridor at the eastern end of Twelfth Street.

The second component of the new park will be the complete refurbishment of the Twelfth St. Pier. Once the Twelfth St. Pier building (which rises almost 40 feet above the water and covers the entire pier at present) is removed, it will open up a new view corridor at the eastern end of Twelfth Street.

It will be restored as a multi-purpose pier. Jutting out over 500 feet into the river, it will be ideal for viewing the NYC skyline and fishing. It will also have the capability built-in (with the preservation of the original large vessel tie down equipment and with the gates to be installed along the south side of the pier) to be able to accommodate historic ships, visiting science boats, and museum barges for educational and cultural visits to our city.

The Platform, which runs from Twelfth St. to Eleventh St. at the shoreline, is the third component of the new park. It will also be restored and will be used as a public gathering and viewing area. At the Hoboken Fire Department¥s request, the Developers will be constructing a drafting station on the south end of the platform. Captain Robert Falco, who requested the improvement, believes it will give the fire department a greater capability to draw water from the river to be used in firefighting situations.

The fourth component of the park will be the conversion of the Peninsula, which is over two acres in size, to an open grass field with a tree grove with picnic tables underneath. The Peninsula will also have an emergency boat launch at the eastern tip that will be used for police and fire rescue boats.

The fifth component of the park will be the continued restoration of the natural sand beach at the Tenth St. cove. The Mayor said "although Danny and George have opened the beach and peninsula to the public on special occasions, the public has had no other access to the beach since it was taken over by industrial interests in the early 1900¥s". An important feature of the beach will be the construction of a boathouse for kayaks and small craft storage. This boathouse will be built as a replica of the first New York Yacht Club, which originally occupied the very same site in 1845. The Developers plan to provide kayaks and small sailboats with instructions, for use of the town's people, free of charge.

A historic plaque, marking the site of the first baseball game ever played will be one of four historic markers to be placed on the property. The New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office recently approved these historic markers.

This first marker will mark Hoboken¥s most famous event on the site; that being the first baseball game ever played (on June 19,1846, when the Knickerbockers Club beat the New York Nine by a score of twenty-three to one"). Since the baseball field will be part of the first phase of the development, the Mayor is planning to host the ribbon cutting at the new baseball field in mid 2005. The city has received a commitment from the American Historical Baseball League team, the Neshanocks (located in Flemington N.J.), whose volunteers will put on a historically accurate recreation baseball game the day of the event.

The second historic marker will be installed at the water¥s edge memorializing the fact that in 1609 Henry Hudson weighed anchor at the very location the park now occupies. His log makes note of "the green serpentine rock outcropping, which may have copper in it" which we now call Castle Point.

The third historic marker will be on the boathouse announcing it was the original site of the New York Yacht Club. "John Cox Stevens, the oldest son of the colonel, known as the leading yachtsman of his day, organized the New York Yacht Club and in 1845 donated a clubhouse near the Elysian Fields, which served the group for twenty years. In 1850 Stevens accepted a British challenge and, aided by his brother Edwin and by other sailing men including Colonel James Hamilton, the son of Alexander Hamilton, he contracted for a state-of-the-art yacht, the America. The next year this vessel, under the command of John Cox Stevens, defeated the entry of the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron in a race around the Isle of Wight. The victors welcomed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on board and then returned home, bringing with them their nation¥s first international trophy, the "America¥s Cup" (Hudson County-The Left Bank by Joan Doherty Lovero, 1999).

The fourth historic marker will memorialize the fact that in 1938, when the Maxwell House Factory was built, it was the largest coffee factory in the world. It accounted for 40% of worldwide coffee production of the Maxwell House Brand. Part of the Historic Preservation Office requirements was for a complete photo documentary of the existing 11 factory buildings. A collection of artifacts and memorabilia regarding the history of the Maxwell House Coffee Factory is being collected and archivally preserved and will be presented in the common areas of the property for public viewing.

Additionally all the original blueprints for the factory, done by hand in pencil on Mylar back in the late 1930¥s, are being preserved.Daniel Gans and George Vallone also announced to the Mayor that their joint venture partner, who will be completing the four construction and marketing phases of the $600,000,000 development with them, has been selected. "We selected Pinnacle, Ltd., headed up by Brian Stolar, President and CEO of Pinnacle Communities of Millburn, N.J. as our joint venture partner, because of the company¥s outstanding reputation as a top quality homebuilder. We have joint ventured several projects in Hoboken and have been close personal friends with Brian for almost 20 years", Vallone said. Brian Stolar said, " we have been looking for urban development opportunities in cities all over N.J. and the Maxwell House site in Hoboken doesn¥t get any better for a new urban community."

The Mayor announced that less than one year from this spring we will all be invited to the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony celebrating completion of the baseball field, the first part of Hoboken¥s largest new waterfront park.