October 2002

Stevens Institute's house of cards for Maxwell House collapses

Rendering of Stevens Institute's proposal for Maxwell House created by Demetri Sarantitis of the Team for Environmental Architecture.

Was it just a pipe dream? For the past year, Stevens Institute has touted its elaborate plans for the former Maxwell House Coffee plant, 14 acres at Hoboken’s north waterfront. Stevens promised to establish a technology/science magnet school for grades six through twelve of the Hoboken public school system. Stevens much acclaimed Technogenesis business-incubator program was also to be located there. Stevens Institute promised to restore two of the old Maxwell House industrial buildings. They also proposed a new baseball field commemorating Elysian Fields, the home of the first baseball game. An early version of the plan called for only 250 residential units, far less than what the present developers of the site propose.

Demetri Sarantitis of the Team for Environmental Architecture drew appealing renderings and detailed plans for Stevens Institute. Stevens mailed out color brochures to Hoboken voters and took out full-page ads in the Hoboken Reporter. Mayor Roberts endorsed the plan as did many in his administration as well as community leaders.

But a year after Stevens President Harold Raveche first unveiled these plans for the Maxwell House property, the project has collapsed. The major obstacle for Stevens Institute has been that they do not own or control the site. Nor does Stevens have the capital required to buy into and develop the land, perhaps the most valuable piece of undeveloped real estate along New Jersey’s gold coast. The Stevens scheme relied heavily on using tens of millions of dollars in state funds for land acquisition as well as school and parkland construction, yet there has been no commitment to date to designate any government funds for this project.

The idea for creating a technology/science magnet school was one of the first pieces of the proposal that came apart for Stevens. There was considerable resistance within the Hoboken public school system for this idea that many believed would establish a two-tier school system, one for the more advance students and the other for the students who ranked behind academically, many of them being from minority and low-income families. Several months ago at a meeting with local officials and the developers in the office of U.S. Congressman Robert Menendez, the congressman voiced his strong opposition to the idea of a magnet school. Although the Hoboken public schools have already obtained from the state over $50 million to rehabilitate its aging schools and build new ones, it now appears unlikely that any of these funds will be spent at the Maxwell House site.

The investors who own the Maxwell House property may have found the Stevens’ proposal far too risky to consider. The Stevens’ project required a number of substantial variances which could provide the basis for the Planning or Zoning Board to reject the application. Stevens’ proposal for 17 and 15-story towers exceeded zoning limits of 125 feet (12 stories). The 250 parking spaces provided only a fraction of what the local ordinance requires. The school is not a permitted use in this zoning district. Currently, both Boards are not granting variances. Developers Daniel Gans and George Vallone’s Maxwell House project requires no zoning variances and thus, they feel, should be acceptable under the law. Ultimately, locating 700 middle and high school students in the exclusive Hudson Street neighborhood could also prove to be controversial.

For the past 14 months, the Gans and Vallone development application has followed a tortured path through the Hoboken Planning Board process. The Board is expected to make a decision on this project within the next several months. Their proposal is for a 1.4 million square foot development, including 982 residential units and 210,000 square feet of retail/commercial space. As part of this application, the developers have offered to donate to the City of Hoboken one-third of the land and piers for a five-acre public park which they would build at their own expense. But many have complained that Hoboken has suffered from too much development and that this project is too big. Mayor Roberts has appointed four new members to the Hoboken Planning Board, most of whom appear likely to vote in opposition to this project.

Since the Stevens project for Maxwell House is now considered defunct, opponents of the current application have recently sought to alter the zoning requirements for the site. After an attempt to change the zoning ordinance stalled, City Councilwoman Carol Marsh introduced a resolution to study the possibility of declaring the site a redevelopment area. The Hoboken City Council passed that resolution at their October 2 meeting. To resolve the impasse, the City is now considering an offer of a tax abatement to the developers in exchange for reducing the project's density.