Page 22 - RE-NJ Nov.2021 #59

20 NOVEMBER 2021
Adeveloper is moving ahead with plans to build 80 new apartments and ground-floor retail space inside a historic building in downtown Newark, following backlash from members of a congregation that had been based at the property for some four decades.
Paramount Assets, which is based
in the city, will mark its fifth project
in the last five years in which it is converting an existing structure in the central business district. But the effort at 20-24 Branford Place will be its biggest yet and unlike the others, given the controversy around it.
The 84,000-square-foot, 11-story building is the former Newark
Chamber of Commerce headquarters but more recently housed office and retail space. It was also the longtime home of the Islamic Society of Essex County, its former owner, which maintained a prayer hall inside the 99-year-old, brick and limestone property.
When the group sold the building to Paramount for around $8 million in December, a group of congregants pushed back.
“Soon after our purchase, some of the worshippers at the ISEC’s former prayer hall in the building began opposing the deal, as they had a sentimental tie to the facility,” said Rich Dunn, Paramount’s senior vice
president. “The property was offered for sale in an open and competitive bidding process by the ISEC, and Paramount won the right to buy the building, which we did.”
Responding to the outcry, the developer in February offered the ISEC the opportunity to reverse
the sale, as city officials pushed
for a resolution. Two months later, Paramount extended the offer to the group of worshippers, who had sued to block the transaction.
The real estate firm set a Sept. 30 deadline for the ISEC congregants to close on the deal, but the deadline passed without action.
“ISEC had no interest in reversing
the sale since the organization was thrilled with
MOVING FORWARD
After pushback, Paramount prepares for latest adaptive reuse project in downtown Newark
By Tina Traster
Paramount Assets is proceeding with plans to renovate and convert a historic 84,000-square-foot property at 20-24 Branford Place in Newark, where it expects to build roughly 80 apartments and ground-floor retail space.
Rich Dunn
its new newly renovated and modern building on nearby Hill Street,” Dunn said, who noted that the Islamic Society had used the sale proceeds
to purchase its new headquarters.
Paramount now expects to begin its renovation at 20-24 Branford Place in spring 2022, after a city review process is complete. Apartment occupancy is slated for summer 2023, in what will add to Newark’s growing stock of
Courtesy: Paramount Assets