Author Topic: 15 Main Street  (Read 23926 times)

Offline irons35

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 249
  • Karma: 16
    • View Profile
15 Main Street
« on: February 26, 2012, 08:14:22 PM »
why is the bank building at 15 Main Street being torn down?  such a beautiful building, such a waste...

[Editor's Note: I split this topic from "Real Estate News Thread" and Bob's recent post with the pictures below.]
« Last Edit: May 14, 2012, 07:52:28 PM by Editor »



Offline Homer Jones

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 622
  • Karma: 16
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2012, 03:36:23 PM »
Surprised that it lasted so long. It is functionally obsolete and has no parking. A relic of the past.

Offline Editor

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 4430
  • Karma: 17
    • View Profile
    • Hackensack Now
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2012, 03:54:22 PM »
I understand that the cleared area will function as a non-city owned park.  I hate to see old buildings go but this one has been dormant for some time. 
« Last Edit: May 14, 2012, 07:52:56 PM by Editor »

Offline just watching

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 928
  • Karma: -25
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #3 on: February 29, 2012, 06:39:21 AM »
So not only are we losing a historic building, the property goes from paying property taxes to paying little or no property taxes.

There's no need for a park there.  We have the green, and the entire top deck of Court Plaza is effectively quasi-public parkland.

Offline BLeafe

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 4158
  • Karma: 26
    • View Profile
    • Bob Leafe Photography
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2012, 06:00:13 PM »
I just happened to see this as I was driving past this afternoon. I didn't have my camera with me, so I zoomed back home to get it.

I'm standing across Main St by the courthouse in the first shot and you can see Essex St on the far left. If you look right below the broken window, you can see what's in the second picture.

I wonder if the courthouse flag in the third image is at half-staff because of the demise of its longtime neighbor across the street.

In 4 through 6, I was looking for any debris that showed designs or architectural touches. There wasn't much.

7 through 9 were the only other standing structural remnants I could find.

I wonder how long it will be before the view of the courthouse shown in the last image is blocked by whatever replaces this pile of rubble (what IS replacing it?).

Like music? Like photography? Step into my office: http://xrl.us/BobL - - - - - - - http://xrl.us/BobsDarkness

Offline just watching

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 928
  • Karma: -25
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2012, 08:58:00 PM »
WHAT A DISGRACE.  Thanks at least for photo-documenting the event.

When the Court Plaza was built, that bank building was left out of the footprint, but left with no parking.  It's fate was sealed.  It might as well have been condemned for the Court Plaza construction.

If the planners wanted to keep it, they should have designated parking for it.  Instead they just left it there, functionally obsolete.

Offline irons35

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 249
  • Karma: 16
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2012, 09:56:30 AM »
or, it could have been the gateway to Main St.  put in a starbucks, cafe, something.  instead, now you have no ratable and for what? another piece of greenery?  there's a huge one across the street...  a beautiful building gone.

Offline BLeafe

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 4158
  • Karma: 26
    • View Profile
    • Bob Leafe Photography
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2012, 03:50:03 PM »
Here's what the site looked like as of last Friday:


Like music? Like photography? Step into my office: http://xrl.us/BobL - - - - - - - http://xrl.us/BobsDarkness

Offline just watching

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 928
  • Karma: -25
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2012, 04:52:50 PM »
I'm sure there is a business plan.  I'm sure something will be built.  Even as a vacant lot, it's still a ratable that pays taxes, just not as good a ratable as a lot with a commercial building on it.

Offline irons35

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 249
  • Karma: 16
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2012, 05:45:51 PM »
the business plan is to remove the concrete and plant grass.  33 Essex st was torn down also.  nothing being built there either.  ratables...

Offline regina

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 156
  • Karma: 8
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2012, 10:14:49 PM »
Sanzari, I believe David, is putting in a park to honor his deceased parents. I heard at a city meeting that he will deed the property to the city but he will maintain it. It will not be turned over to the city until it is complete.

Offline Homer Jones

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 622
  • Karma: 16
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2012, 11:51:34 PM »
If David is doing it to honor his parents, you can bet that it will be a first class open space.

Offline just watching

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 928
  • Karma: -25
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2012, 08:33:02 AM »
Is this true?  Is the city council really on-board with this?  Yes, we need more parks in Hackensack, but not at that location.  This new park doesn't serve any neighborhood, and "The Green" is very close by. There's no point to a park at that corner.  That's a piece of property that's only good for economic development, creating jobs, generating tax revenue.

If the younger Sanzari wants to help with parkland in Hackensack, how about eliminating the diagonal street and making a cute little neighborhood park and playground at the NE corner of Hamilton Place and Prospect Ave. It would front up on a church at the corner.  That's a neighborhood that really needs a park, there's not a spec of parkland in a half-mile radius.  And that won't take any land off the tax rolls either.

Offline Homer Jones

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 622
  • Karma: 16
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #13 on: July 17, 2012, 10:08:58 AM »
Unfortunately that parcel is ill suited for economic development , job generation and new ratables. This piece of land is an irregularly shaped, 9,000 sq. ft +/- lot with it's length facing on Essex Street which is a County Road. If someone else were crazy enough to buy it for let's say a commercial use, they would need more variances than the recent medical proposal that got tanked on Summit Avenue. There is absolutely no way that the County would ever give approval for a driveway and it would be difficult and hopefully impossible to find a traffic engineer who would give testimony that access to the site could be safely granted. This would be true if Main Street is one way two way or three way.
This lot is smaller than two lots in the Fairmount area which are mostly rectangular. If one were to subtract whatever front yard, side yard and rear yard are required under the zoning ordinance, there would be little land left to build on and no way to meet the parking requirements.
Due to the size and location of this parcel, open space is probably it's highest and best use although a Sabrett hot dog wagon might be a good interim use.

Offline just watching

  • Long-time poster
  • *****
  • Posts: 928
  • Karma: -25
    • View Profile
Re: 15 Main Street
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2012, 06:11:51 PM »
You are 100% right, except for one thing. 

The parcel could be used for office use as an expansion of the Court Plaza complex, either using the parking there (there is so much vacant space now), or the parking at the SE corner of Fair & Essex if the city wants it to be to parking code. That's where the bank parking was. 

Now that it's been leveled, it would be next to impossible to get permits to build on that lot because the stream/CSO runs right through the property, in a giant underground pipe. The pipe runs between Court Plaza and Essex Street, and then angles in a strange way on Court Plaza property right behind the bank, and then directly under the former building.  The CSO then runs under the courthouse complex where there is a narrow driveway/street between the two main buildings.

Probably the best use for the site would have been for ANOTHER bank to come in using the old building.  It's proximity to the Courthouse makes the building attractive for that use.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2012, 06:20:36 PM by just watching »

 

anything