WOODCLIFF LAKE—The second Zoning Board of Adjustment public hearing on a revised plan to construct 53 apartment units at 188 Broadway will be held June 16, 7:30 p.m. on Zoom.
A similar proposal for 60 units was rejected in mid-2019 by a unanimous Zoning Board of Adjustment citing traffic, high density, and a lack of effort to market the vacant 188 Broadway office building as office space.
Three applicant expert witnesses are scheduled to testify, leading into questions from the public and board.
The revised application requests a use variance for multifamily housing in an Special Office (SO) zone, plus a variance for interior parking lot landscaping and waivers for grades on walkways and swales.
A small portion of the property is zoned R-15, but no development is planned there.
The applicant seeks to renovate and convert the existing vacant office building into a multi-family dwelling structure to contain 37 residential units (consisting of 33 one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units.
It also wants to construct a new two-story structure on the property behind the existing building to the east, which will contain 16 residential units (12 one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units).
“In total, the property will contain a total of 53 residential units (45 one-bedroom units and eight two-bedroom units),” said the public notice.
The 188 Broadway site contains a vacant two-story office building with an underground parking garage. The building lies near the busy intersection of Broadway and Woodcliff Avenue, close to the borough’s train station and opposite Woodcliff Lake Reservoir.
Earlier this year, 188 Broadway LLP presented a 60-unit proposal for the site but then withdrew the proposal following some public pushback. After several months the applicant proposed a reduced-unit proposal.
At the first hearing, the applicant attorney and borough attorney took turns challenging each other. Applicant Attorney Paul Kaufman accused Borough Attorney Sal Princiotto of not allowing him to make his case and also accused Kaufman of introducing irrelevant evidence such as a building appraisal allegedly meant to undermine the 53-unit proposal.
A major point of contention between Zoning Board members and the applicant two years ago was whether any efforts were made by the owner of 188 to market it as an office space. The applicant’s first witness, David Bernhaut, of Cushman Wakefield, spoke about the overall office space market, which has seen rapid declines and now is slowly picking up.
More workers worked from home during the Covid-19 pandemic and fewer appear now to be returning as offices re-open.
Kaufman started off the hearing mentioning that the only tenant occupying the building at its time of purchase by 188 Broadway LLP was its owner, WWL Realty Americas LLC, which vacated the premises before it was transferred to 188 Broadway LLP. No other tenants were in the building at that point, he said.
Bernhaut maintained the 188 Broadway office building was “very inefficient” and on the low-end of leasable office space in Bergen County. He noted other office buildings on Chestnut Ridge Road and Tice Lane offer more amenities such as shopping, food and entertainment options near by the offices, amenities not available at the 188 Broadway site.
He also noted the location was not accessible by any major highway.