Montclair Officials Approve Downtown MXD Project

MONTCLAIR, NJ-The former Hahnes department store building has sat vacant for some 15 years in this city's Town Center business district, but the old building will shortly be coming down. Replacing it will be a mixture of new retail space, apartments and two parking facilities.

Developers Pinnacle Downtown and Kohl Partners, joint venture partners of the project under the name of Herod Development, have signed a formal redevelopment agreement with city officials to kick off their project. What's in store for the business district site is a total of 38,500 sf of new retail space, along with more than 100 rental apartments, with 10% of the latter set aside as affordable units.

"Having received redevelopment approval, we are ready to reinvent this site," says Brian M. Stolar, president and CEO of Pinnacle Communities Ltd., the Millburn-based parent of Pinnacle Downtown. "Our development team has worked hard to design this mixed-use project to incorporate the town's rich tradition, future needs and community character," adds Leonard Kohl, who heads the Teaneck-based Kohl Partners.

Besides the seven-story retail/residential building, the project will also include a 132-vehicle on-site residential parking facility. Pinnacle and Kohl will also be managing the construction of and contributing to the cost of building a separate public parking deck for the town of Montclair, containing 430 spaces. The groundbreaking for the project is expected to take place within the next month.

The Montclair project is one of several that Pinnacle is currently involved with in the Garden State. In the largest of them, Pinnacle Downtown is working with Toll Brothers to develop the former Maxwell House Coffee manufacturing site in Hoboken as Maxwell Place, which will consist of 830 residential units and 200,000 sf of retail/commercial space.