I had the opportunity to tour Hackensack's newest luxury building, the 8-story Marquee at 29 First Street. This is about 1/2 block north of Arena Diner, same side of the street.
Nice building, first impression is the awesome molding in the lobby. Units have expensive wood cabinets and granite in kitchen, 12" x 12" marble tiles on the shower walls. Every unit 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms each with walk-in closets, and a good size living room, hardwood floors. Washer/dryer and 50-gallon hot water heater inside every apartment. Lots of onsite garage parking. Only the 4th floor units have balconies, because first 3 floors are parking tower, top 5 are units. 1100 - 1300 square foot per unit, renting for $2000 - $2350 a month. Rent includes parking. No security guard.
They claim that only 8 units are left, but only 6 families so far have moved in. They have a temporary CO, and hope to get the final CO this week. Most of the renters are doctors and nurses at HUMC, who then walk to work because parking for the hospital is ridiculous. They feel that units in a brand new building, "just off Prospect", should rent for the same price as a 30 or 40 year old apartment on Prospect, assuming the same square footage. Despite the First Street address, it's still on the hill, they say.
They looked into buying the Ridgewood Plumbing Supply across the street, a larger lot, to build a similar building. Afraid to go for a variance in Hackensack, with all the publicity over contested applications. I highly doubt that anyone would fight it, this is a part of Hackensack that most people would like to see redeveloped. Nobody fought the Kaplan building 2 blocks south on Polifly Road, and they went for a variance on setback, lot coverage, and other things. They also complained that the city building department changed all the rules in 2011 after the parking tower collapse, and made them retrofit various things in this building. Joe Mellone is "tough", they said, but they acknowledge that "he is doing his job". The Hackensack building department "closely monitors every little thing, and you don't have this level of scrutiny in other cities". For a developer that wants to do quality construction, this shouldn't be a problem. For those who want to do shoddy work, I say to go find somewhere else to build.
