North Jersey's Meadowlands getting 2 hotels, 500 apartments, retail space

North Jerseys Meadowlands, once home mainly to warehouses and industrial sites, will be getting a new mixed-use redevelopment with two hotels, 500 apartments and retail space in Rutherford.

The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission has approved amendments that Lincoln Equities Group LLC sought to the roughly decade-old redevelopment plan for its Highland Cross project.

Lincoln Equities is ready to proceed with the project, set for 26 acres near the intersection of Routes 17 and 3, said Joel Bergstein, president of the East Rutherford-based real estate firm. The property, a former brownfield site, fronts on Veterans Boulevard and is behind the Meadows office complex on Route 17.

Construction is likely to start in about 18 months, Bergstein said.

There is certainly a changing landscape in the Meadowlands, where communities are recognizing that mixed-use development is a good thing, he said. It helps bring ratables, which all the municipalities need. And its the next stage of evolution in the Meadowlands.

With North Jerseys office market still struggling to recover from the recession, and a growing demand for apartments, real estate developers are increasingly looking to build projects that incorporate residential, hospitality, retail and office space. The proposed plans for drug giant Roches campus, on Route 3 in Nutley and Clifton, call for mixed uses, including a hotel. And Hartz Mountain Industries Inc., whose original bailiwick was industrial real estate in the Meadowlands, has taken the mixed-use tack with great success in Secaucus.

Lincoln Equities officials anticipate an increased demand for hotel rooms when the American Dream project eventually comes online in East Rutherford. However, they add that Highland Cross can succeed without the huge new entertainment-retail venture.

The original redevelopment plan for the Rutherford property allowed the construction of 1 million square feet of commercial office space and a hotel.

But North Jerseys office market declined following the recession and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, prompting Lincoln Equities to look for other uses for the Rutherford site. The developer and the borough went back and forth for years on how the Rutherford site should evolve into a mixed-use project, in terms of the density of the residential units and other issues.

In pre-2007, before the financial crisis, there was a more ambitious proposal with high-rise residential buildings that arent appropriate in todays environment, said Robert Schenkel, Lincoln Equities senior director of development.

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North Jersey's Meadowlands getting 2 hotels, 500 apartments, retail space