Eighteen people addressed the Zoning Board of Adjustment during Thursday night’s final hearing on a potentially landmark application impacting the evolution of the Newark Avenue downtown corridor.
During public comment, nine people spoke in support of the planned Albion Hotel, and nine against it. But when it came time to vote shortly after 9 p.m., board commissioners weren’t split like those in the crowd.
The board engaged in no debate before voting 7-0 to approve the site plan of Frank Cretella, owner of Landmark Hospitality and Landmark Developers.
Plans call for transforming the old Capital One Bank building into a nine-story, 72-room “boutique hotel.” The building will stand nearly 120 feet tall and face Newark Avenue, Jersey Avenue and Maxwell Street.
The Albion is not expected to be an average hotel. It’ll house an art gallery, recording studio, rooftop bar, restaurant, gym, and mezzanine, across 62,312 square feet, and make use of the 1920s-style bank structure at 201 Newark Ave.
Before making its decision, the board had to weigh whether the applicant met the criteria for two significant variances – pertaining to use and height – because hotels are not permitted uses in the Neighborhood Commercial-1 (NC-1) Zone, and the proposed building height is close to double what’s allowed there.
Per code, the maximum building height is five stories and 64 feet, and the permitted uses are retail, offices, finance, restaurants, theaters, museums, government, parks, playgrounds., residential apartments, education, bars, childcare, medical office, health club and café.
Cretella’s presentation proved successful in getting the application approved as it faced a formal challenge from the nearby Saffron Condo Building.
“I’m not a developer. I run a hospitality company. I think it’s a little different and I think that’s why we prevailed,” said Cretella as he left the City Hall Annex Building.
The board’s decision came at its fifth lengthy meeting on the matter and it ends the municipal land use process for an application filed with the city during the summer of 2020.
“This was a very difficult decision for me,” said Chairwoman Catherine Coyle at the dais. “I’ve gone back and forth between no and yes. And it’s very difficult. I’ve look at it all. I’ve listened to the homeowners in that area. I’ve listened to (Cretella’s) side promoting it.”
“I’m going to vote ‘yes’ because I think it’s a beautiful building. I think it will add to the community, and Jersey City downtown, where I’ve lived for so many years,” she added.
With the approval in his back pocket, Cretella hopes to break ground in early 2026 on what he expects will be 18 months of construction on the hotel inspired by the Ace Hotel in New York City. He recently opened a similar hotel, also called the Albion, in Summit.
Cretella purchased the property in December 2019 for $5.35 million, according to property records. He said he has “no idea” what the project will cost him, though he estimated “$30 million, maybe more.”
“I gotta figure that out,” he said. “I know it’s more than I thought originally.”
The board first began meeting to learn about Cretella’s application in October. It took several meetings over multiple months to get to a vote because of the organized pushback.
Councilman James Solomon had publicly backed the protests along with the Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association, Harsimus Cove Neighborhood Association, Van Vorst Neighborhood Association, Village Neighborhood Association, Powerhouse Arts District Neighborhood Association and Paulus Hook Neighborhood Association.
The councilman, who is also running for mayor, said the vote is an example of what “developer dollars can buy in Jersey City.”
“The zoning board’s outrageous decision to let a politically connected developer double the height of his hotel proposal without any substantive community benefit – no union jobs, no affordable homes, no green space – is exactly why we need change in Jersey City,” said Solomon in a statement. “Any everyday homeowner who made a similar proposal would be laughed out of the room.”
The Saffron board went one step further and hired its own attorney who offered up arguments, presented witness testimony, and cross-examined the applicant’s experts in hopes of proving the project was not “legally” allowed to be built.
The condo building and old bank are the two largest properties in the area’s NC-1 zone, and the battle is expected to continue in court.
Saffron, at 217 Newark Ave, intends to appeal the board’s decision, at least in New Jersey Superior Court and then perhaps the Appellate Division and, if necessary, the Supreme Court.
“Absolutely. It’s not even a second thought,” said Gabby Feliu, Saffron’s board president, immediately following the vote about the possibility of an appeal.
Saffron’s attorney Anne Studholme, feels the board wrongly based its approval on the perceived overall positive impact.
“I just love how everybody was saying that this was about Jersey City,” said Cretella during the post-meeting interview. “This is all about the city, not just there, not just Saffron. I do think I mitigated all the issues with Saffron.”
But that rationale is, apparently, what gave Studholme reason for hope in the appeal.
“It’s clear that the board’s sympathies were for the city as a whole,” she said in explaining how “their emotions were tugged at,” and they voted based on “whether the city will benefit as a whole” — not the “very strict legal test.”
Cretella is confident in his team’s case in court given the positive testimony and unanimous decision.
“I don’t think a judge will take long to opine that,” said Cretella, whose wife Jeanne, a part owner in the Landmark brand, gave $2,000 to Mayor Steve Fulop’s ticket in 2021 the October before the municipal election.
Only three of the seven board members explained their votes.
“I’ve been here for the last 70 years and I grew up and have been in downtown for most of my life, so I’m very aware of what’s going on with the development all over the city,” said Vice-Chair Sonia Araujo.
“I don’t agree with a lot of it. I agree with some, but not all. But I do like to see that there is an opportunity for a restaurant to actually be open (earlier and) maybe a little longer, not just starting at 4 o’clock,” she added.
Commissioner Carl Czaplicki said he felt the zone’s purpose was to create amenities like the hotel, not just for the neighborhood, but for the entire city to enjoy.
“People from throughout the city come down to Newark Avenue to eat, have fun, enjoy themselves, to stroll with their kids as well. And that really is what that location is about,” he said.
Czaplicki said a hotel is part of the “give and take” that’s “part of, fortunately or unfortunately, growth.”
He noted that there could be increased traffic but said that Cretella is “preserving that bank, building something that’s viable, something that Jersey City needs, that the downtown business community needs, that Jersey City itself as a whole needs,” Czaplicki added about why he supported the application. “The jobs come into play. The ability to advertise Jersey City through a project like this, I think is important,” he added.
The Jersey City Times attempted to learn more about the other members’ reasons behind their votes in favor. While approaching one of the quiet commissioners at the dais after the meeting, the panel’s attorney Santo Alampi, who typically represents the Planning Board and was filling in for the night, shut down the interview.
Alampi deferred the “comments” of any commissioners to what they stated on the record during the meeting or the written joint decision to be memorialized in a resolution likely next session.
Studholme said that because the area was a “well-established neighborhood,” there’s was no wiggle room for a variance.
“People, who are paying a lot of money for their houses, know that they’re going to be able to count on the zoning, that this corridor – not a couple of blocks away – but this corridor, everybody is going to be the same height, so their views don’t get changed,” said Studholme in reference to one complaint being about the new building impacting the sightline of residents.
Many protestors claimed the new building would ruin the neighborhood’s character. But Amanda Atkinson, who owned Consigned Designs, 197 Newark Ave., across from the old bank building, said she was a “100% supporter” of the planned hotel in the fall when she spoke with the Jersey City Times.
Atkinson felt it would be a “boost” to downtown and lead to a “clean-up” of the area. Atkinson won’t be the beneficiary of any such improvements. Consigned Designs closed its doors last month.
Andy Milone has been a freelance reporter covering local government for various New Jersey and New York news outlets since May 2024. You can reach him at 201-406-7222 (call/text) or [email protected]. The... More by Andy Milone