Another cool-looking project appears to be coming to Jersey City.
Skyline Development Group received site plan approval earlier this month for Steel Tech, a 3.3-acre redevelopment project to be located at 417 Communipaw Ave.
The complex will feature a 190-foot, 420-unit residential tower, a business incubator facility, two public plazas, a recreation center and a pedestrian mall connecting Communipaw Avenue to Berry Lane Park, one of Jersey City’s largest parks.
“Skyline Development Group remains a committed developer in Jersey City and beyond, and is excited for the Steel Tech development project to finally get off the ground,” Skyline founder and CEO Louis Mont said.
The project, located on a brownfield site, will undergo an extensive redevelopment to meet the city’s zoning requirements.
The complex is anchored by an 18-story high-rise mixed-use building that will offer 420 units, 5% designated for affordable housing. The building will have 92 studios, 197 one-bedroom, 96 two-bedroom and 35 three-bedroom apartments.
The high-rise portion will include 7,425 square feet of retail space and will also feature about 24,000 square feet of amenities for future residents. The main building boasts a red brick design with modern large glass sections that are evocative of the site’s industrial history.
Mont thanked Dresdner Robin, a leading land use consultancy firm, for leading the planning, surveying, engineering and landscape architectural design and 3D modeling/rending on the project.
“Dresdner Robin’s expert planning and design work has certainly helped this plan get approved, and we look forward to working with them as we see this vision come to life, just as it has in their plans and renderings,” Mont said.
About Dresdner Robin
Dresdner Robin is a leading land-use consultancy covering the New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia metro markets. The full-service firm provides creative solutions that emphasize service, client satisfaction and technological innovation with specialties in site/civil engineering, land surveying, environmental services, planning, and surveying and landscape architecture in the revival of urban landscapes.
“The Steel Tech redevelopment project is unique, as it was the first time that we used cutting-edge virtual reality and 3D renderings to transport our client into our design,” said Mark Robison, staff landscape architect at Dresdner Robin.
“As brownfield and urban redevelopment experts, the Steel Tech complex development was right in our wheelhouse. We are proud to pay homage to the heritage of the site through the inclusion of an existing structure, along with maintaining the narrative of the steel manufacturing that once took place on the property.”
The project also features a minority business enterprise success incubator and a commercial shopping plaza, a 14,000-square-foot portion of the complex that will offer affordable commercial offices — with no less than 40% of the spaces designated as retail incubator space for minority-, women-and veteran-owned businesses.
The complex development also will utilize the existing Steel Tech Head House, which is currently used as offices and may eventually be adapted as a retail or restaurant space. In addition, a new three-story, 22,000-square-foot recreation center will be constructed along the southern edge of the site adjacent to Berry Lane Park. The recreation center will include a basketball court and other flexible rooms, along with a 40-space public parking lot along Woodward Street.
Dresdner Robin included custom wayfinding signs and sculptural light poles to carry the steel-focused design through the site and complement a public art installation at the entry plaza. The two public plazas are designed to be sustainable and have flexibility in future programming, with open lawn space, permeable brick and stone dust plazas and planting design that maximizes tree canopy and sight lines.
