Leaders of Edison Properties recently joined Newark city officials to dedicate the new Jerry Gottesman Way outside the firm’s headquarters on Edison Place, honoring the company’s late co-founder and the visionary real estate executive. — All photos courtesy: Edison Properties
By Joshua Burd
A new street sign in downtown Newark is paying tribute to the late Jerry Gottesman, the visionary real estate executive who spent decades advocating for the city’s revitalization.
Leaders of Edison Properties, which he co-founded in 1956, joined local officials last week to dedicate the new Jerry Gottesman Way outside its headquarters on Edison Place. Those on hand included Mayor Ras Baraka, city council members and other dignitaries, as well as Gottesman’s wife Paula and their children, all of whom marked his contributions during more than six decades at the company’s helm.
While building a parking lot and self-storage empire, Gottesman was famous for holding his properties and for his role in the complex land swap that helped create the Prudential Center, which opened in 2007, pushing to have the arena built a few blocks from Newark Penn Station in order to drive foot traffic to the downtown.
SLIDESHOW: Jerry Gottesman Way
“We are grateful for the opportunity to join with the city of Newark in honoring Jerry Gottesman’s life and legacy right outside our company headquarters,” said Jon Dario, Edison Properties’ CEO. “He made a tremendous and lasting impact on Newark and our broader community. Edison Properties is proud of the unveiling of Jerry Gottesman Way in his memory, and we look forward to continuing our strong commitment to Newark just as Jerry did.”
The street sign at Edison Place and Columbia Street is just west of what’s known as Ironside Newark, a historic warehouse that the firm converted into more than 400,000 square feet of modern, loft-style office space and ground-floor retail. The project began before Gottesman’s death in 2017, helping to kick off the development of the public park known as Mulberry Commons that now extends eastward from the arena.
What’s more, officials gathered in mid-September to break ground on the new Mulberry Commons Pedestrian Bridge over McCarter Highway and the adjacent railroad tracks, which will link the downtown with the city’s acclaimed Ironbound neighborhood and provide a full connection to the Prudential Center. It was the culmination of an idea that Gottesman had advocated for since the earliest days of the venue, with visions of emulating Manhattan’s High Line.
