The burned and abandoned house at 269 Park Street was leveled today by a contractor hired by the owner, Nigito Realty. The house burned about 7 years ago, and has been a hideous eyesore for years. It was an eyesore BEFORE it burned, to be honest.
This property was on the city's list of abandoned properties. My understanding is that the city pressured Nigito Realty to resolve the issue of the blighted property. Well, that's what the contractor said.
This was the LAST blighted building remaining on Park Street, and it's removal is a dramatic improvement for the entire stretch from Central Ave to Passaic Street.
In the mid-1990's, a great many properties on Park Street were blighted, including an abandoned and overgrown church/house combo at the corner of Central Ave and three hideous two-family houses near Berry Street that were owned by absentee landlords and rented out as Section 8 welfare housing (it was bare dirt across 3 contiguous front lawns, with garbage cans kept permanently along the curb and the front doors left permenantly open, even in sub-freezing weather). There was dilapidated boarding houses, other houses with severe property maintenance issues, a bankrupt 40-unit condominium with 31 of the units as vacant and abandoned. And let's not forget the chaos at 370 Park Street (aka: "New Jack City"), where the police were there so much that they stationed one cop to live there undercover to try and control drug problems. And last but not least, there was Salvatore Moretti's building, a 22-unit abandoned garden apartment complex near Passaic Street.
Things were so bad by 1995 that it was an open question whether or not Park Street was worse than the middle section of Central Ave (which at the time was also worse than it is now). I lived on Park Street at the time, and as a condo board member, I participated in the restoration of the bankrupt 40-unit condo at 300 Park Street. We taxed ourselves $5,000 a unit and retrofitted the entire building inside and out. Trust me, it was no small task to get a 3/4 majority of unit owners to agree to tax and spend on such a grand scale. (Thanks to Board President Anna Romero for spearheading that one.)
Then, with the assistance of Sgt. Patrick Fay and the Wellington Hall Nursing Home, the condo board started a neighborhood block watch. Although Fay was initially against it, the effort included pursuading the city to enforce property maintenance laws. In 1997, the city issued violations to 27 of the 33 houses on the 3-block stretch, and followed up diligently on every one of them (except for Nigito Realty's house). Then at our urging, City Manager Jim Lacava pushed the partnership of Abbott, Walsh, and Ingallinera to sell off the 3 welfare houses. These houses are now three "normal" owner-occupied houses at 347, 351, and 355 Park Street. People can drive by them without gasping and saying "Oh, my God, this is terrible".
Over the past 10 years, no street in Hackensack has improved MORE than Park Street. The change has been stunning and dramatic. All the problem properties have been resolved. The street is stabilized. We have a stable neighborhood as a BUFFER seperating the industrialized and unsightly Railroad Ave corridor from the city's downtown. No downtown can prosper as long as it is surrounded by troubled neighborhoods. Park Street can no longer be called "troubled". Strategically, Park Street is most critical to the future of Hackensack due to its geographic position. Few people realize that this "good neighborhood buffer" that has been restored along Park Street is ESSENTIAL to attracting redevelopment on State and Union Streets as well as the general improvement of the downtown. With this base in place, things can only get better.
Even the zoning has changed to reflect residential stability. It is now R3A instead of R3B. The R3B zone potentially allowed large office buildings. R3A allows 6-story multi-unit buildings, as well as houses.
Although the Nigito property now contains a vacant lot, which isn't a desirable use on this street, it is much improved. At least we can finally say that every single building on the street is in good condition. Kudo's to everyone involved regarding the demolition of 269 Park Street