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Bottom-Up Renewal

New Jersey & Company
Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Push straight to the top, or start at the bottom? Many
development firms bypass the "wheels and cogs" that make up communities, but one urban neighborhood development firm called the Hoboken Brownstone Company has had long-term success by making wheels and cogs an integral part of the building process.
In early June, Newark Mayor Cory Booker announced his desire to attract a major bookstore chain because such retailers are "community fixers." However, on the afternoon of June 9, he was excoriated for this idea by NJ 101.5 radio hosts. Was such a retailer really what the current community needed, they wondered, and would support? In other words, would the old saying "if you build it, they will come" come true?
It should be, says Daniel Gans, who with George Vallone, founded Hoboken Brownstone Company (HBC). "This tenet has been the fulcrum of HBC s projects since its inception in 1980," he says. "A healthy city is one that has a smoothly operating mass transit network, lively neighborhoods that contain housing, sundry retail to fulfill needs and aspirations, a variety of eateries and bars, schools, as well as community centers. A well-functioning, attractive city is one that provides its inherent communities with the ability to thrive."
Traditionally, cities have developed organically as designated areas for commerce and industry, Gans explains. Market yards and industrial plants galvanize the building of homes, storefronts, and service businesses to create main streets and urban enclaves. A distinct and discrete pace, rhythm, and mindset gradually develops in city dwellers, which, over the years, collectively create a city's energy and identity.
Hoboken Brownstone Company is dedicated to duplicating this process—now referred to as "new urbanism," which Gans defines as "the idea is that we can create new urban areas, but the reality is that often, such construction is not accepted everywhere." Before taking on any given project, HBC accesses the availability, location, and viability of mass transit. However, any open space with a train depot doesn't automatically make the location ripe for new urbanism. A far more important factor, says Gans, is whether the community in whole supports the project, and has the willingness to alter and adapt to a new pace and mindset.
"We muse consider the community groups who will live, work, and play there," says Gans' partner George Vallone. "Our theory has always been to work in the bottom, so to speak, engaging the community groups in and surrounding the area we are targeting. We propose a plan, meet with all interested community groups,
individuals and leaders, then evolve the plan with the input we have received, honing in on the benefits and amenities they desire until we have a strong and clear consensus, then take it to the government level. [To put it] simply—if the people want it, the politicians will follow; they want to make their constituents happy."
Often, Vallone notes, developers create plans based on far-reaching ambitious projects that are loftier than what the community will bear, and sell these plans straight to the cop, meaning the politicians. Bur HBC, he says, has achieved nearly 100 percent consensus on several plans presented to community groups in Philadelphia, Jersey City, and Hoboken.
One prime example of HBC's "bottom-up" planning is the firm's stellar example of adaptive reuse of the former Maxwell House Coffee Factory in Hoboken. This 1.9 million-square-foot, mixed-use project features 832 condominiums, 1 60,000 square feet of office space, and 50,000 square feet of retail space situated on 14 acres. HBC also incorporated input from proactive community groups into the design of Maxwell Park, which is now the largest public park in the City of Hoboken. A tiered peninsula used for truck parking, deteriorating bean-storage silos, and a pier with a neglected warehouse were transformed into a boat launch, fishing pier, children's playground, playing fields, and a dog run, edged by a walking path overlooking the riverbank. Further, an existing and unassuming sand beach now sports a replica of the original circa-1846 New York Yacht Club that once existed on the site.
Over in downtown Jersey City, HBC's redevelopment of the former Van Leer Chocolate Factory will feature a similar composition: a 438-unit mid-rise condominium development that will be spread throughout the seven-acre site, along with a 1.5-acre public park, HBC will incorporate the 30 percent open space requirement in the

Re-Development Area Zoning Code. Now known as Van Leer Park, it includes a children's play area, a nature preserve, and a dog run open to the Jersey City public and visitors,
And. in Philadelphia, HBC collaborated with the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association (NLNA) For six months, and then signed a development agreement with [be community group for the proposed 1, 100-umt high-rise project. Amenities and benefits desired by the NLNA included restoration of a row of 1790s townhouses that were scheduled for demolition, creation of a 1.5 acre public park, creation of 55 units of affordable housing, and office and meeting spate for the NLNA.
Additionally, says Vallone, “We were successful at working with Jersey City's political leadership to obtain a $4.6 million earmark from the Federal Highway Transportation Fund for an abandoned railroad right of way adjacent to the property to be used to create a link from the new park to the Second Street Light Rail .Station stop a halt-mile away. This linear park will provide pedestrian access to the closest mass transit facility where rail service is available to the ferries and subways into Manhattan, as well as to commercial and retail locations along the gold coast.'"
But the Van Leer project is singularly distinctive because, when complete, it will be a premier example of true energy conservation through energy avoidance. The principals see this as serving as a model for federal and local initiatives aimed at a stronger reliance on green building practices. For the Van Leer site, HBC will develop a condominium community that will improve green building practices and change the way environmentally-aware buildings, are created and measured, going beyond current LEED protocols for certification by establishing several special LEED categories for multifamily, residential housing with special certification programs,
"We believe that a new perspective is necessary in order for the Green Building Council (GBC) to recognize two unique challenges," says Cans. One is the difficulty of incorporating green building technologies into multifamily for-sale housing. Two is the challenge resulting from climatic differences in various regions of the country that affect the technology and eventual efficacy of" green building design. As these differences are recognized and as the LEED certification system is regionally customized to address these challenges, Gans says, "More people will participate in the LEED program and benefit from following the suggested procedures."
As the success of previous projects attests, Gans, Vallone, and the HBC ream will likely succeed in encouraging the GBC to create and adapt new measures; thus far, the principals relate, the Jersey City community is firmly and passionately on board to support the fruition of the concept. "We received a unanimous vote by the planning board in just one presentation," says Vallone. Onward and upward.