Improvements to the city's retail sector are most needed on Main Street and Anderson Street. The 60,000 square feet will be just another SMALL TACKY STRIP CENTER, absolutely nothing to look at it or be proud of. In fact it will be far smaller than the Shop Rite Riverfront Plaza. It is way too small for a movie theatre, which I agree is needed in Hackensack, preferably on or near Main Street.
Retail is not a good land use along the river due to multiple environmental reasons. There is increased runoff of pollutants into the water, and a whole lot of litter blowing around and into the water. Even light pollution is more severe with retail. Plus retail is less "green", meaning the percent of the site plan that is landscaping. Having more people care about the river is important, and that happens most when people live along it. Right now, nobody lives along the river in our city, and that's a damn shame. In addition, the river pathway project is less compatible with the backs of retail properties, and potentially more compatible with office and residential properties. Highway-type retail may also amount to ugly sprawl. Think of Route 46, for example, or Route 17.
The existing Shop Rite/Riverfront Plaza has effectively become a relatively compact "center of town" for the First Ward of Hackensack. In this regard, it is a positive for the city. However, that "sense of place" which was INADVERTENTLY created will be eroded if developers build a whole corridor of similar retail up and down South River Street. If the Shop Rite/Riverfront Plaza is the new center of town for that area, it should be surrounded with high-quality upscale residential condo and apartment units.
As for upscale condos, I don't see any reason to limit them. Look at how much of our city's housing stock is boarding houses, old 3-4 family houses, houses in disrepair, junky little garden apartments, public housing projects, homeless shelters, etc. If we build more upscale units, the percent of the city's housing stock that is LOW-STATUS becomes less, and therefore the public perception of the city as a viable community advances. It believe it is, quite literally, an ARMS RACE. From the arms race persepctive, I believe that more upscale condo construction will improve everything from the city's crime rate to student test scores in our elementary schools. And the River Street corridor near and south of Route 80 is a perfect place for this advancement to occur. South River Street can't become the next Edgewater without having upscale condos AND upscale retail.