Proposed 27-Story Tower Would Blend New, Historic in Downtown Newark

NEWARK — The developer of a 27-story high-rise proposed for the Military Park Historic District has received initial city approval on designs for the site of what was long ago Tipsy’s Bar & Lounge.

The developer, 56 Park Place LLC, has proposed building 235 apartments with retail and restaurant space on the ground floor at 56 Park Place, according to the application, which calls for 55 mechanical parking spaces inside the building. It is across the street from Military Park.

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The total project cost is estimated at $45 million, the application says. Key in the architectural design is an inclined lattice, architect Ciaran Kelly, of MVMK, told the Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission on Oct. 2.

“It’s that grid that wraps around the façade, and it’s set deliberately at a skew, at an angle,” Kelly said. “What that does is a number of things. It’s a kind of playful way to introduce movement into the façade.”

The design, he said, ties into the buildings on the rest of the block and even though the existing one-story building would be torn down, its façades would be preserved on the new structure.

“They’re charming, and there are beautiful features there, but, obviously, the new building we’re proposing is of a different time and is of a different scale and so how the two of them meet is important,” he said.

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The lattice of the upper floors would stop one floor above the ground-level brick façade, Kelly said.

“We would use a frameless glass clerestory ribbon window between the two such that the tower almost appears to float above the bricks and doesn’t touch down or press down on top of it,” he said.

The commission approved the design 6-1 with one abstention and the condition that lights be added to the top of the columns in the façade. Subsequent site plan approvals would be required before construction could start.

“The goal here is the preservation of that front,” along with construction of the “additional building,” Jennifer Carrillo-Perez, attorney for the applicant, said.

The property is next to WBGO Radio's headquarters, now slated to move to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s expanded campus, which broke ground last month . And it is several doors down from the swanky Robert Treat Hotel. The project is the latest in a series of high-rise residential developments in downtown Newark.

Myles Zhang, among the commissioners to vote for the project, asked the applicant to consider working to ensure that neighbors to the left and right of the narrowly shaped property do not build immediately adjacent to the new high rise.

Many communities, he said, allow owners to purchase “development rights.”

“I can buy the air rights from the neighbors so that none of the neighbors can build buildings as high as mine to block up my light views,” Zhang said. He said he was not sure, however, if Newark has the legal framework for such purchases.

Commissioner Linda Caldwell Epps cast the only “no” vote.

“It’s an all-glass and metal building, and I just think it detracts from the historic streetscape,” Caldwell Epps said.

Plans for the property made public in 2017 called for a 26-story hotel. How and why the plans changed was not immediately clear.

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