This is the current site of the C.H. Martin that sits above the PATH tracks. A few years ago the owner wanted to negotiate a rezoning to allow a 42-story tower on this site in exchange for reopening the subterranean passageway from the C.H. Martin to the PATH stop, but it appears those negotiations are now dead.
400 apartments plus 3,000 sq ft retail and 17,000 sq ft office space proposed.
EDIT: Renderings courtesy of Marchetto Higgins Stieve. Thanks @nuplex!
I had no idea there was a passageway down there. That would be amazing to reopen!
RIP to CH Martin though - it’s been a staple of that corner for decades. Can’t wait to hear more about this.
Is there no news on the redevelopment of those lots directly behind this?
Yeah, CH Martin is underrated. Especially now that Amazon has raised prices, CH Martin is a place where you can buy anything from a vacuum cleaner to a pair of jeans for cheap. I wish they’d put more than just 3,000 sq ft of retail in the new building.
It seems that redevelopment of the lots behind C.H. Martin (808 Pavonia) has just not been economically viable. Just like with 1 Journal Square. People think developers just make free money out of thin air, but these large buildings seem to come with risks that aren’t always outweighed by the return. I know that the owners (the Harwoods) were looking for a partner to develop the site with them, or to buy the site from them, a couple years ago. It seems they’ve been unsuccessful at attracting investment.
Hopefully that whole trench is eventually platformed, and developed with huge towers. This should be just like Hudson Yards, Sunnyside Yards and Atlantic Yards.
Really, the whole PATH rail trench through JC needs a giant platform. Would be great with soaring towers and parks. The PA needs to push this forward.
A lot of these new buildings definitely have the space to put more retail, but instead they use it for parking. Which is ridiculous to me considering how close these developments are to the best mass transit in this city!
425 Summit has 2 retail spaces but a large, two story parking deck.
And @crawdad - the original vision of the Journal Square 2060 plan proposes the decking of the train yards and putting towers and acres of parks on top. So they’ve definitely thought of it!
Agreed about the parking. This one won’t have parking, but they. opted to give more of the space to office than retail.
@crawdad As far as decking over the yards, construction costs have gone so high that it’s now prohibitively expensive. Even at the Atlantic Yards, where the rents are Brooklyn-level (several times higher than Journal Sq), they have not built a single residential building over the railyards yet. All the buildings have been around the edges of the yards.
Apophenic, I’m seeing 368 Units total (115 of them studios).
Thanks Oreo, you’re right! Will update.
It’s the zoning, Zone 3 has a height limit of 27 stories. sometimes with a mezzanine, they can get to 28 stories. and then with a height variance (which is allowed to be no more than 10% aka 2 stories in a redevelopment plan) they can get to 30 stories. if no offiice is included, they can only do 25 stories. so it always varies between 25 and 30 stories on the largest sites in Zone 3. on smaller sites, they can only do 12 to 18 stories.
The owner of this building had tried to negotiate 17 extra stories in exchange for reopening a PATH entrance. But that seems to have been nixed either by the Port Authority or by the local councilman. City administration claims it was the Port Authority that nixed the reopening, but the Port Authority denies this.
Interesting. Honestly hope that zoning restriction is removed or relaxed someday. Most projects seem to want to build higher, and thatd be great for creating a more balanced skyline, as well as furthering density.
On the PATH entrance concession, probably fault of Port Authority, based off their track record.
I like the base but wow the tower sucks. Imagine having that beautiful Lowes theater right next door and they come up with a fully glass building as it’s neighbor. Meh.
Nah gotta disagree, the building looks great.
The Lowes is one of the most iconic buildings in this city - more thought could have gone into making this building have better context to it’s neighbor. MHS was probably tasked with designing something that really stuck out lol.
As for the zoning, the area was already rezoned for higher and more dense development as part of the 2060 plan. Maybe it should be revisited.
Okay journal square…! You’re getting beautiful! Quickly becoming another new TriState destination. 
!!
