DEVELOPMENT

Linden continues to revitalize with commercial, residential redevelopment

Bob Makin
Courier News and Home News Tribune
Developer George Capodagli of Linden-based Capodagli Development Co. is pictured at the groundbreaking of his company's forthcoming Meridia Lifestyles II apartment complex with his wife, Jeannine, across Wood Avenue from the first phase of the project, as well as his office. With a third development in the works on Elizabeth Avenue, Capodagli is a large part of Linden's revitalization efforts.

LINDEN — Like most cities pursuing redevelopment, Linden aims to bring more people, particularly millennials, to its downtown.

But the industrial city, whose Tremley Point is one of the most polluted parts of New Jersey, according to Rutgers University environmentalists, also aims to reduce its carbon footprint with two upcoming redevelopment projects.

Mayor Derek Armstead said the New Hampshire-based RNG Energy Solutions renewable natural gas company recently signed a 30-year lease to redevelop the former Clayton Block building materials site on Tremley Point. In addition, Austin-based, environmentally friendly developer FirstEnergy Power will build a plant for Nashville-based Aries Clean Energy, which turns sludge into charcoal, Armstead said. That plant will be built at the sewerage authority building the city shares with Roselle, the mayor said. Both projects are in the initial planning stages and are about a year from construction start, principals said.

“We have a number of developments going on in Linden right now,” Armstead said. “And we’re reducing the carbon footprint. It’s a good time to be mayor in Linden. We have a lot going on.”

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Aries’ charcoal can be used for several different products, Armstead said. And RNG takes food waste and makes into natural gas, he added.

“They bring in food waste from other locations and treat it like a slurry,” he said. “They run it through the process, and it creates a natural gas product. On the back end, it produces a peat moss … and they sell that to Home Depot and people who need it for agricultural uses. It’s a composting mechanism, a high-speed compost.

“We pay to have our sludge removed,” the mayor added, “so we can reduce the cost of that by using Aries.”

RNG has a good track record building plants in Long Island, Colorado and France, said Alex Lospinoso, director of the Linden Economic Development Corp. The company's food waste will be delivered by barge on the Arthur Kill, rather than via truck, thereby reducing the city’s carbon footprint even more, Lospinoso said.

Interest in Tremley Point has been increasing from the renewable energy and logistics industries, he said. More than 4.2 million-square-foot warehouse soon will be built there by Advance Realty and Greek Development, he said.

There's more

Other approved plans in Linden include 14 townhouses to be built on the once contaminated, long fallow site of Park Plastics at 940 S. Park Ave.

Scotch Plains-based Peak Construction and Development Construction expects to break ground in October, President Jeffrey Santos said.

“We will be working with a real estate broker and an architect to provide 3-D renderings as soon as we break ground,” Santos said. “All of the units will be available for sale from the start of construction. We anticipate the first eight units to become available for moving-in sometime around June 2019.

“Each unit will be complete with four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, with the master bedroom on a separate level with an en-suite bathroom,” Santos added. “We think these are perfect homes for families and will be reasonably priced around $375,000 per unit.”

Earlier this year, Santos sold a single-family home that Peak built at 603 Morristown Road in Linden for $479,000.

He said he wants to build in the city because he has family and many friends here, having grown up in the area.

“My landscaping company has served and maintained residential and commercial properties in Linden for over 20 years,” Santos said. “I’ve worked on projects all over the state and, ultimately, I enjoy projects close to home that positively impact a community that has been so important to me for a long time now. Also, I see Linden as a city that is being revitalized and want to contribute to helping the community continue to grow.”

Also to be constructed soon in Linden will be:

  • A new shopping center at the site of the vacant and recently sold Pathmark property on North Stiles Street that will include a Super Fresh grocery store, a pharmacy, a laundromat, and a children’s playground by the spring of 2019
  • A Wawa and Taco Bell at the site of the Exxon station on West Edgar Road (routes 1 & 9).
Linden Mayor Derek Armstead, left, is pictured with George Capodagli of Linden-based Capodagli Development Co. at the May 24 groundbreaking of the Meridia Lifestyles II apartment complex.

More Meridia

Expecting approval soon is Meridia 1001, the third Linden apartment complex to developed by city-based Capodagli Development Co. since 2014. An abandoned, fire-ravaged eyesore that once was a United Lacquer warehouse, 1001 W. Elizabeth Ave. will be revived with more than 300 middle-market residential units, a rooftop swimming pool, ground-floor retail, a Cap Hospitality restaurant, a fitness center, and three levels of parking.

Armstead described the redevelopment of the “rundown, dilapidated” property as “transformative” at the recent groundbreaking for another Capodagli property.

“It’s going to be amazing,” he said.

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At that same groundbreaking, Capodagli said, “We are becoming known as ‘first in redevelopment.’ We are the company that will take on the development challenges in your town when nobody else will.

“Linden is on the move to becoming a unique destination, a great place to visit, shop, eat, entertain and enjoy quality, affordable housing,” he added. “Our new buildings will continue to serve as an anchor for that growth.”      

The groundbreaking was for Meridia Lifestyles II, the second phase of a middle-market apartment complex, initially completed by Capodagli in 2015 with 176 units directly across Wood Avenue south and Morris Avenue, next to the developer’s offices in a converted firehouse.

Nearly ready to lay its foundation, the project will expand upon the Lifestyles concept with 145 more residential units, plus first-floor retail, more parking and better construction, Armstead said. The parking will be underground, added Lospinoso.

“It’s safe to say that the parking below is a direct result from us learning from our mistakes on Phase I,” Armstead said. “It has parking but not enough. We weren’t really happy with the outcome of the first project, so we made them change his architectural design. We held him to a higher architectural standard. There’s a big difference in the second building versus what he did with the first building. We made him put different material on the new building. The first one looks like a big box. Although the apartments are nice on the inside, it’s just not esthetically pleasing. I said, ‘We’re not going to go through that again.’ ”

Having broken ground May 24, Lifestyles II is expected to open in September 2019, the mayor said. Retail tenants will include the latest Cap Hospitality restaurant overseen by Nicolas Geeraerts, the developer’s director of hospitality. The Belgian chef has managed several Manhattan restaurants and served as Delmonico’s director of operations.

The restaurant will be the company’s second farm-to-table Cap Diner, following one in Hackensack, and third eatery overall in the wake a different concept that will open beforehand in Roselle Park, Geeraerts said. In addition to fresh ingredients from local farmers, Cap Diner will include world-renowned Lafrieda Meats.

Lifestyles II also will feature a Cap Hospitality Cap O’ Joe coffeehouse, as well as a “speakeasy,” both of which also will feature fare from local farmers, the hospitality director said.

“The speakeasy will focus on specialty cocktails,” Geeraerts said. “I guess you could say it will be ‘farm-to-cocktail.’ ”

All three also will serve Vittoria Coffee, Geeraerts said.

By the time, Lifestyles II opens, Cap Hospitality will have rolled out its Meridia Black Card, which provides tenants in all Meridia locations with monthly $25 discounts to all restaurants, coffeehouses and speakeasys; priority reservations; invites to all events, and free in-room delivery. Other Meridia locations include Rahway, Bound Brook, Roselle Park, West New York, Hackensack, Dover, Garfield, and Wallington.

“I want to build a community with my residents so that if you live in Roselle, but happen to be visiting Hackensack for business or pleasure, you can use the discount anyway you like and the priority reservation,” Geeraerts said. “We’re trying to create an AmEx concierge but for residents.

To be anchored by a Super Walmart, Legacy Square is a massive shopping center being built at the former site of the General Motors plant on routes 1 and 9. Dallas-based developer

Other construction

Also under construction is Legacy Square, the latest addition to the 47-acre former General Motors plant, the back of which, along West Linden Avenue, now houses warehouses and office buildings. Facing bustling West Edgar Street, however, will be a massive shopping center that will include a 186,000-square-foot Super Walmart, more than six pad sites, and possibly a hotel, Dallas-based developer Cypress Equities said.

Other tenants are expected to be announced soon, Cypress Equities said, and construction of the project’s second phase will begin by year's end. At complete build-out, Legacy Square will include about 350,000 square feet of retail space, the developer said.

“There are 10 to 12 well-known franchises that are extremely interested,” Lospinoso said. “Franchises that Linden never thought they would have.”

Armstead said that employees of the city’s current Walmart at 1601 West Edgar St. will be relocated to the new site, which will bring additional jobs to Linden, and the building will be converted into warehouses.

A depressed section of the city along Route 27 on the border of Roselle will get a boost when work is completed by Roselle Park-based Ramani Group on a high-end multi-use building that will feature 114 luxury residential apartments and 18,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Known as citivillage @ st. georges ave, the project will include a dog walking park, fitness center, yoga room, promenade, garden, roof terrace, community center, 144 on-site parking spots, and 41 spots for street parking.

“I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but the project will bring many construction jobs to Linden,” Ramini said, “and we have more than 18,000 square feet of retail that will bring a lot of permanent jobs in the market as well.”

The developer said he expects leasing to begin next summer upon completion of Phase I of the project. Phase II is expected to open by the end of next year, he said. Rents will be between $1,500 and $2,200, Ramini said.

For the retail portion, Ramini Group is looking for a full-service restaurant with a liquor license, a café, a bank, and other service-oriented business.

“We will start to market these spaces in a month,” Ramini said.

“It took us three years to get the citivillage project going,” Armstead added. “The hardest thing sometimes is to get a shovel in the ground. A lot of plans are put forth, but to get that shovel in the ground is the difficult part.”

Recently completed construction includes several single-family homes on a new cul-de-sac built at the end of Luttgen Place by former city police officer-turned-developer Peter Matlosz.

New businesses in Linden include Madison Seating, which purchased and redeveloped a longtime vacant property at 2710 Allen St. Moving in mid-August from Brooklyn, the small business refurbishes furniture for such clients as the FBI and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank.

“They’re looking to hire 35 to 40 employees,” Lospinoso said.

Other new businesses include:

  • MedExpress Urgent Care, 415 W. Saint Georges Ave.
  • Jersey Mike’s Subs and Giuseppe 4 Pizza, Aviation Plaza, 683 W. Edgar Road
  • Launch Trampoline Park, 1601 W. Edgar Road.

Staff Writer Bob Makin: 732-565-7319; bmakin@gannett.com