Joshua Burd at NJBiz reports on the opening of 221 Bergen in Harrison, NJ.
The ribbon-cutting at 221 Bergen, which includes two 52-unit luxury apartment buildings. – (THE HAMPSHIRE COS.)The long-running effort to transform Harrison’s waterfront has taken another step forward with the opening of 221 Bergen, a new 104-unit residential complex at the site of a former cookie factory.
The project officially opened last week after being developed by The Hampshire Cos. and CrownPoint Group, with Circle Squared Alternative Investments serving as a project investment adviser, according to a news release. The firms gathered Friday with local officials to mark the completion of the complex, which includes two 52-unit luxury apartment buildings and a host of amenities.
Jon F. Hanson, founder and chairman of Morristown-based Hampshire, credited Harrison’s mayors for driving the redevelopment of the town’s former industrial waterfront, including Raymond McDonough, who died in February 2014 during the approval process for 221 Bergen. He said McDonough’s successor, James A. Fife, “continued to lead with a passion which has been reverberated through our own halls and those of CrownPoint.”
“For Hampshire, the completion of this project is a testament to our dedication to work with local officials and communities in order to create something that is more than just a building, but an opportunity to take part in the revitalization of a growing, thriving community,” Hanson said in a prepared statement. “221 Bergen embodies that sense of community.”
The Bergen Street property is the latest addition to Harrison’s 250-acre waterfront redevelopment zone, which encompasses 32 percent of the town’s 1.2 square miles and is across the Passaic River from downtown Newark. The effort to transform the waterfront goes back more than 15 years and has garnered the support of nearly a dozen developers, but has faced plenty of hurdles along the way including the economic downturn.
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