Planning experts and business people gathered last week to talk and hear about what’s happening in Orange, East Orange and Irvington.
The fourth Annual “Tri-Community Commercial & Residential Development Seminar” was held June 26 at Sandwiches Unlimited in Orange on North Center Street.
The event brings together business owners and planning officials representing the municipalities of Irvington, Orange, and East Orange, who talk about projects going on within their municipalities and some of the efforts they are making to attract and help businesses.
The annual meeting has a set format designed to be quick and informative. Each municipality gives a 15 minute presentation, followed by a question and answer period.
Members of the Irvington Springfield Avenue Business Improvement District were the primary sponsor of the seminar that was organized by David Biagini of FirsTEAManagement.
“We bring together the three in one efficient evening of dinner and presentations,” Biagini said. “It’s clean and efficient for the business people. Some of it is inside information and there’s good networking.”
FirsTEAManagement manages chambers of commerce and special improvement districts.
City of Orange Township Mayor Dwayne Warren began the program talking about some of their shared goals.
“Anytime something good is happening in town, it’s good for business,” Warren said.
Orange Director of Planning and Economic Development Laquana Best followed Warren and spoke about several residential projects going on in Orange, including Pinnacle on South Essex Avenue with 103 units, The Elks, which will have 126 rental units at the site of the former Elks Club on Main Street, Summit on South Day Street, which will have 99 residential units, and a Russo development, Essex & Crane @ Lincoln on Lincoln Avenue, which will have 200 units.
Warren said that between 800 and 1,000 new units are in various stages of development in Orange.
The new properties are generating much greater revenue for the city, in some cases as much as ten times, Warren said. He also said the city has worked out arrangements with some developers that benefit more than just the residents of those developments.
“They will build a parking deck at their expense and they will control some but we’ll be able to rent out spaces to train commuters,” Warren said. In other cases, developers donated money for various municipal programs.
When asked how much of the new housing will be affordable, Warren said the city currently has affordable housing and is under no mandate, as many municipalities are, to construct affordable housing.
“We have lots of affordable housing,” he said. “More than our fair share.”
Warren went on to say that the city, however, is making a conscious effort to avoid creating “ghettos of wealth.”
“We want incomes of all levels,” he said.
Orange has about 33,000 residents legally on the books and probably about 10,000 more people on top of that, Warren said. Providing recreation space for residents is a priority.
“In Orange, we are building a state of the art recreation facility with basketball courts, youth rooms, senior rooms,” Warren said. “We are looking to see what open areas we can use. Our problem is we are only 2.2 square miles.”
Antoinette Marie Brevard, economic development manager for East Orange, followed and talked about the efforts being made to help small businesses in her city and the developments that are currently underway.
To help small businesses, the city holds Small Business Saturday, participates in the Garden State Arts Festival and holds a Business Achievement Awards luncheon. The city also runs a professional development series for small businesses.
“We provide technical assistance on a variety of levels,” Brevard said.
The city is also updating its signage, adding Solstreet benches with charging stations and big belly trash cans.
Brevard also cited numerous residential developments going on in the city, including The Station with 172 units, Modern@Grove with 90 units, the Ted R. Green building with 60 units and the Berwyn-Grand with 24 units.
Irvington also has several developments underway, including a 37 unit residential building on Ellis Avenue, a 25 plus unit development on 22nd Street, a multi-unit development on Springfield Avenue at 21st Street and an 18 unit structure on Madison Avenue.
Also in the works are storage space on Chancellor Avenue and a warehouse project on Court Street.
The old Irvington General Hospital site continues to undergo redevelopment. Two phases have been completed with five more planned.
Warren summed up the usefulness of the municipalities getting together.
“When Newark, Orange, East Orange, and Irvington are working collectively, we get more out of Trenton,” Warren said. “We find it works better when we work together.”
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