The 28-block-long stretch of waterfront, called the Liberty Harbor North Redevelopment Area, is ambitious, to say the least, and would surely put an exclamation mark of the much-heralded makeover underway in New Jersey's second-largest city. As outlined by city planning director Bob Cotter at the recent planning board meeting, it would encompass some 6,000 residential units, most of them townhouses, along with four million sf of offices, a million sf of hotel space, and a retail component that could go as high as 750,000 sf.

City officials are looking to turn the area into a cross between Greenwich Village and the Upper West Side of Manhattan. "It will be unlike anything else in this city," Cotter told observers at the planning board meeting.

The development process would begin by putting the various phases and uses up for bid. No names have been mentioned, although two of the more prominent landowners within the massive tract are locally based Peter Mocco, and Jeffrey Zak, a developer based in Bernardsville, NJ.

Luis Munoz Marin Blvd., Grand Avenue and Jersey Avenue provide the general boundaries of the tract, which also abuts the city's tidewater basin. Most of the facilities that would be developed within the area would have views of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. No schedule has been announced for city council hearings on the proposed redevelopment.