ORANGE, NJ — West Orange Councilman Victor Cirilo is heading up a renewed effort to get NJ Transit to make improvements to the Highland Avenue Train Station in Orange now that work has started on the Harvard Press development project and the West Orange Township Council has approved the Central Valley Redevelopment Area nearby.
Cirilo said his primary goal is to get weekday rush hour MidTown Direct service to Manhattan added to the station’s schedule, which he said will be more convenient for riders than having service only on weekends and weekdays at 4 p.m. And now is the time to advocate for the idea, he said, so NJ Transit will be ready to implement additional service stops once development in the region is completed. That would be beneficial to West Orange because direct access to New York City will entice commuters to move to the area and cause property values to rise, he said.
But Cirilo knows his voice alone will not be enough to bring about change. He therefore plans to partner with Orange, Harvard Press developer The Alpert Group and other stakeholders to show NJ Transit there is much support for a better Highland station.
“There is strength in unity and there’s strength in numbers,” Cirilo told the West Orange Chronicle in a Jan. 19 phone interview. “If we can show NJ Transit that we have the numbers, we have the unity, we have the vision, we can help accentuate change.”
Right now, Cirilo said he is researching what efforts have been made in the past to improve the Highland Avenue station so that he can avoid duplicating anyone’s work. Once he is done, he said, he will reach out to fellow stakeholders and formulate a plan on how they could successfully call on NJ Transit to make desired changes.
Orange Mayor Dwayne Warren said he is definitely interested in working with West Orange since improving the Highland Avenue station has long been a priority for the city. In fact, Orange is currently preparing to make physical improvements to the dilapidated station — another goal of Cirilo’s — using a $614,000 grant obtained from the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternative Program in 2015. The ultimate goal of that project is to reopen the station’s building, which has been closed for more than two decades.
So far, Warren said, environmental and architectural assessments of the site are complete, and the city recently hired an engineer and architect for the project. He said work will likely be done to the roof and restrooms — including the plumbing and heating systems — in the coming months. Orange Planning and Economic Development Director Marty Mayes added that ADA improvements will also be made to the station. Mayes said asbestos will have to be removed too, but the environmental assessment actually found less than expected, which means more grant monies can go toward the physical improvements.
Warren said the city also intends to take control of the train station in the near future, a plan that was actually a mandate tied into receiving the TAP grant. Mayes said that control will likely be in the form of a low-dollar lease rather than complete ownership of the property, but he said it is too early to know what the exact cost of such a lease would be or what steps would have to be taken before one could be obtained.
Lisa Turbic, NJ Transit’s senior public information officer, told the Chronicle in a Jan. 24 email that the agency was currently drafting an appropriate property agreement. She said it would be premature to discuss any costs during the negotiation process.
Meanwhile, Warren said he has had conversations with NJ Transit about adding another MidTown Direct stop, but the agency told him added service would depend on increasing ridership. The Highland station’s ridership is indeed low, with Mayes estimating that last year it reached approximately 250 weekly riders compared to the Orange station’s roughly 1,400 weekly riders. Still, Warren thinks another stop should be possible considering the city’s efforts to improve the station and the ongoing Harvard Press project.
“We believe that a redevelopment project with a refurbished train station will increase ridership and strengthen our request for another MidTown Direct,” Warren told the Chronicle in a Jan. 20 phone interview.
Joe Alpert, president of The Alpert Group, said he was also told by NJ Transit that additional MidTown Direct lines would hinge on the Highland Avenue station’s ridership. But now that construction on his Harvard Press project has finally begun — foundation work and environmental remediation are ongoing — Alpert said he would like to reopen that conversation with the agency. And he said he would love to work with Cirilo as well as the Orange and West Orange administrations to make more direct trips to Manhattan possible from the Highland Avenue station.
The Harvard Press redevelopment certainly has the potential to attract more riders for the station. Phase 1 of the project, which launched in Orange on Dec. 29, after being stalled for years due to government funding issues, features the construction of a four-story building with 128 rental units, the conversion of an existing art deco structure into a parking garage for 162 vehicles and the redirection of the Rahway River east branch to its original location. Phase 2 will see the construction of 100 additional rental units in West Orange.
Once built, Alpert said the redevelopment will surely become an asset to the Valley district. He told the Chronicle that the environmental remediation will clean up the area while the residences will add vibrancy and attract commercial opportunities. Overall, the redeveloper said the project will put a new face to a region long dominated by crumbling warehouses.
“The redevelopment,” Alpert said in a Jan. 20 phone interview, “will turn probably a 20-acre area in the Valley from small, underutilized, industrial (space) to residential and commercial (space) and make it a transit hub for the whole Northeast corridor. So I think it’s a transformative project.”
The city of Orange and The Alpert Group are not the only ones willing to join Cirilo in his campaign to push for Highland Avenue Train Station improvements. Luther Flurry, executive director of the Orange-based Housing and Neighborhood Development Services group, said he would be happy to work with Orange and West Orange leaders to bring about change. HANDS already played an integral role in establishing the Valley arts district that has started to rejuvenate the region. Improving the train station would be an additional step toward improving the entire area, Flurry said.
“Train stations are the front door and foyers to our communities,” Flurry told the Chronicle in a Jan. 20 phone interview. “With great train stations, we can make a great first impression. And visitors frequently judge a community by their first impression. So improved train stations are key both from a marketing and quality of life perspective.”
The Urban Essex Coalition for Smart Growth — an organization uniting municipalities, nonprofit organizations and businesses to push for mixed-use development around Essex County’s five commuter rail stations — is also likely to be an ally of Cirilo’s moving forward. HANDS founder and coalition member Patrick Morrissy said the coalition became involved with the situation when it supported Orange’s grant application. It also has had a few discussions with NJ Transit about adding more MidTown Direct stops and renaming the station after the Valley, Morrissy said. But he told the Chronicle that nothing has come to pass — yet.
Many residents of Orange and West Orange have also made their voices known regarding the issue. The Friends of Highland Avenue Station Facebook group has attracted more than 300 members so far; the group started a Change.org petition calling for the station building to be reopened and had 247 signatures as of press time Jan. 24.
Orange resident Christopher King even took it upon himself to try improving the station, adopting it last year through NJ Transit’s Adopt-a-Station program and creating the Highland Avenue Station Beautification Council with the hope of making the exterior more aesthetically pleasing. King told the Chronicle that he drew up some renderings for how the station would look with gardens and a gazebo, which earned positive feedback when he presented them to the Orange City Council. But when he approached the city with his ideas, he said he was warned that any work he completed might have to be undone depending on the future plans for the station. Not wanting his efforts to be wasted, King did not pursue his goal any further.
Now that Cirilo is planning to lobby NJ Transit though, King said he would be eager to lend his support, even in simply picking up the litter at the station. He pointed out that a clean area will make people feel safer and more willing to board the trains there.
Above all, as an artist who works in the Valley arts district, King said he just hopes the station can be turned into the gateway he’s always known it can be. The resident said Highland Avenue station could easily be transformed into a hub where people could socialize and learn about the numerous galleries, restaurants and businesses immediately adjacent that are currently being overlooked by riders not familiar with the area. As a result, he said, the entire region would benefit.
“A successful Highland Avenue station equals a successful arts district,” King said in a Jan. 20 interview. “If we create more traffic and we can create a vibe and we can give that station a character that speaks ‘Orange’ and the talent within it and the surrounding neighborhoods — West Orange too — that would be a good thing for the community down there. We’re sitting on an asset that has untapped potential.”
Of course, Cirilo is also receiving support from his colleagues in West Orange. West Orange Mayor Robert Parisi said his administration is already working with Alpert and the city of Orange to push for change at the station, but he is glad to see the West Orange Township Council now getting involved as well. Parisi pointed out that direct access to New York is an asset to any community. Having it in the Valley will certainly make the district more attractive to potential residents, he said.
Assemblyman John McKeon said he is also willing to share his knowledge of the situation with Cirilo, with whom he is regularly in touch. McKeon told the Chronicle he would like to press NJ Transit to add more MidTown Direct service stops, but he does not know if that will be a possibility. He pointed out that the issue is a “chicken or egg” dilemma since NJ Transit will not add stops to a station with low ridership, but the reason ridership is so low may be because the station has so few stops. Still, he said wants to try because advocating for the needs of his communities is always a priority for him.
West Orange Councilwoman Susan McCartney, a vocal supporter of enhancing the Valley, said she too hopes MidTown Direct service will be expanded before redevelopment in the area is completed because having more stops would be an ideal marketing tool for the local housing market. And though that change might not happen immediately, McCartney said it is not impossible to think NJ Transit would not act eventually.
“Maybe if enough people showed support for the project, it would put it on their radar,” McCartney told the West Orange Chronicle in a Jan. 19 phone interview, adding that supporters could even form a group like the West Orange Pedestrian Safety Advisory Board to work toward change.
For now though, it does not look as if the train station will be altered any time soon. Turbic said the agency has “no immediate plans” to expand service at the Highland Avenue Train Station. Turbic declined to comment about whether an expansion could be possible any time in the future or what sort of ridership increase would be needed to bring about one.
As Cirilo’s campaign begins in earnest, Parisi said the recently approved Central Valley Redevelopment Area is also moving along. The West Orange mayor said the township is currently seeking funding from state agencies to pay for the ongoing environmental remediation on its own area property. He said he did not know exactly how much the work will cost, but he is confident the township will not have to spend any of its own money on it.
At the same time, Parisi said the township is continuing to work with most of the property owners to take down old buildings on their lots with the aim of providing additional parking for the area. He said only one owner has been resistant, but the administration will keep trying to foster cooperation. The township itself has also started cleaning up debris from its properties.
Parisi added that the township will start accepting redevelopment proposals in the near future.
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