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MAHWAH — After the kaboom, what's next for the Sheraton Crossroads site?
The 250-foot-tall, 25-story building was demolished by implosion on May 10 in a matter of seconds. Following a series of loud booms, the hotel collapsed inward to a cheering and clapping audience, leaving only a cloud of dust where the building had once stood.
The hotel had stood at the crossroads of routes 17, 287 and 202 for 37 years and had been closed for good since December 2023.
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Township Business Administrator Ben Kezmarsky said on May 12 that Danco General Contracting, which handled the demolition, will handle the refuse cleanup of the site, which is expected to take four to six months.
"I don't know about the glass and steel, but the plan for the concrete, at least, is to crush and utilize it as fill on the site," Kezmarsky said.
Danco owner Danny Matarese said the walkway and parking garage were not part of the implosion and will be dismantled separately.
"You don't implode a parking deck that's only two stories tall, you just tear it down mechanically," Matarese said. "The glass and concrete will stay on site as aggregate that will be reused for the redevelopment of the site. So the steel will be removed and recycled."
Mayor James Wysocki posted thanks to Danco "for their professionalism and for including us in the demolition event" in a statement on the township's Facebook page, facebook.com/mahwahtownship.
"They were gracious in addressing our concerns and placed safety as their top priority," Wysocki said. "The Mahwah Sheraton Crossroads lived up to the true meaning of Mahwah, it was a welcoming sight and a meeting place for all. The demolition is step one in developing a future that we can all be proud of."
But what that future is remains in question.
The 172-acre site has been through a number of proposals, from a mixed-use residential/commercial site to some 800 units of multi-family housing. In December 2023 developers proposed replacing the Crossroads building with two warehouses.
In August 2024, the Township Council approved amendments to the warehouse proposal that increased the warehouse buildings' potential maximum square footage from 1.7 million to 4 million square feet on 140 acres. By way of comparison, the One World Trade Center building is 3.5 million square feet.
But so far, Crossroads Hotel Developers LLC has not made any public announcement about developing the site.