Ironbound Residents Revive Ballantine Brewery Redevelopment
Posted on 23. Nov, 2009 by Christian Yarnell in Money and Economy
A view of what was once the main brewery building and parking lot from St. Charles Street. Ferry Street runs to the left of the building. Click here to see a map of the area.
By Christian Yarnell
Residents and city planners are reviving efforts to redevelop the old Ballantine Brewery complex, a dilapidated industrial site on the eastern end of Ferry Street – the main thoroughfare of Newark’s Ironbound district – that neatly cleaves the neighborhood in half.
Planning officials held an open community meeting on September 23 to elicit input from local residents and kick start the effort. The Jonathan Rose Companies, an urban development firm based in New York City, will draft a land-use plan meant to guide the future of the site. A $750,000 Wachovia Regional Foundation grant is financing most of the planning work, say city officials and community leaders. But state funds will likely be needed for actual redevelopment, and residents fear they are unlikely to get them because of the current recession and the state’s financial woes. Any plan will also need approval from the property owner.
The Ironbound Community Corp., the neighborhood’s largest community organization, is the driving force behind the redevelopment efforts. They have the backing of city officials, including Deputy Mayor Stefan Pryor and City Councilman Augusto Amador, who attended the meeting.
“We hope to bring new life to this area,” said Joseph Della Fave, executive director of the organization, at the September meeting.
For more than three decades, efforts to redevelop the site have languished. The complex dates to 1879, and once provided over four thousand jobs for local residents. Ballantine was the third largest brewery in America in 1950 before its rapid decline in the ’60s and ’70s. The brewery shut down in 1972, its brand and distribution network sold off. Failed plans to overhaul the building date back to 1977, when private developers hoped to build a shopping center and townhouses on the site.
Now, residents have several ideas for the site, including retail shops, housing, schools and community centers. Daniel Hernandez, from the Jonathan Rose Companies and the lead drafter of the new plan, said afterward that, at the meeting, he had heard a clear message: residents want any redevelopment to create local jobs and support economic development.
The site is 21 acres in total and cuts the Ironbound’s main street in two. Residents living on the east side of the complex must traverse a long, dark and potentially dangerous stretch before reaching the vibrant shopping area on Ferry Street. The site also includes a 6.5 acre parking lot, which has been vacant for so long that weeds protrude prominently through the concrete. The brick siding of the buildings create an imposing wall – “one of the longest walls I’ve ever seen,” said Evan Rose, a contractor working on the plan. The south side of the site borders old railroad tracks no longer in use, where grasslands now grow thick.
“It makes the neighborhood look like crap,” said Brian Tavares, 25, whose house on Christie Street faces a parking lot that is part of the property. “A whole lot of people go in there at night. People even bring in dogs to fight.”
Residents hope redevelopment will proceed swiftly, but Hernandez said that his firm will not produce a concrete redevelopment plan, but rather identify the most appropriate land-use regulations. The new zoning rules could be very specific, said Hernandez, requiring industries to be green or even forbidding parking areas necessary for truck-heavy businesses. Hernandez and team will present a first draft of the land-use plan at another community meeting on November 18.
Ana Baptista, from the Ironbound Community Corp., said that she expected Hernandez and his team to finalize their plan in early 2010 and that, if the property owner was willing, work could begin shortly thereafter.
Perris Straughter, from the city planning office, cautioned that it was more realistic for redevelopment to occur in five to 10 years. The current effort is “planning for when the economy recovers,” said Straughter.
Several residents present at the September meeting said they were skeptical that anything would come of the plan, complaining that similar discussions about the site back in 2003 did not go anywhere.
At that time, community leaders hoped the site would become home to a new high school. Councilman Amador said that he and other city officials pushed for a school at the site but could not get state funding.
Redevelopment will require a deal with the property owner, RAR Inc. RAR, headed by Gerald Rubin, currently leases part of the building to about 25 different companies, mostly for warehousing. Straughter said the deal already gives Rubin a steady income stream and that Rubin therefore does not have an urgent motivation to redevelop the site.
Rubin did not respond to requests for an interview.
Yet community activists said they are confident they can work with Rubin on the redevelopment.
“We can come up with different scenarios whereby he can make a profit and still benefit the community,” said Baptista, who recognized that nothing can happen without Rubin’s agreement. “In the end, it’s his property.”
