Photo: Melanie McLean
A controversial proposal that seeks to purchase and raze the VIP Diner has been submitted to the Jersey City Planning Division. The plan, which would erect a one-story 10,000-square-foot Walgreens pharmacy in place of the diner, has met with initial resistance from some Journal Square residents, and the Division of Planning has indicated that the site plan it has received does not align with the kind of development the city would like to see in that area.
A manager at the VIP would not confirm or deny details of the purchase when reached by phone last week.
Walgreens already has the VIP property under contract, according to Stephen Reid, the senior vice president at the lobbying and community relations firm Capital Public Affairs; Reid says he was hired by the drugstore company to “get out to the community” and advocate for the proposed plan. But, he notes, the sale is contingent on at least two variances that Walgreens has applied for from the Planning Board.
Zoning regulations at the site prohibit the proposal outlined in the project’s current site plan, which calls for a one-story structure with a 22-space parking lot that fronts Kennedy Boulevard and Sip Avenue. The minimum height required for new construction in that area is four stories, and front-yard parking is not permitted.
While some residents have claimed that the proposed Walgreens would include a drive-through window, the site plan submitted for review by the Planning Board does not include such plans.
Reid says Walgreens is hopeful that its application for the variances will appear on the agenda of the Planning Board’s June 15 meeting, but board secretary Barbara Payne tells JCI that the board is awaiting additional paperwork from Walgreens and has not yet scheduled a hearing for the proposal.
Although he does not expect unanimous support from the community, Reid says Walgreens has no intention of trying to “fly under the radar” with this project.
“That’s not being a good neighbor,” he says.
According to Reid, as part of the company’s efforts to notify and seek support from the project site’s neighbors, he will be meeting with members of the Journal Square Special Improvement District (SID) this month to present the plan. Don Smartt, who is the district administrator of the Journal Square Restoration Corporation — which operates the SID — confirms that he has been in touch with Reid and will “share the [Walgreen's] plans with the board” of the SID. However, Smartt says that the SID, which typically takes a hands-off approach to development proposals, will not go out of its way to support or oppose the project.
Reid has also reached out to a number of Journal Square community groups and met with Ward C councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez.
For her part, the councilwoman says she “did not commit to any support” in her May 13 meeting with Reid, according to an email Lopez sent to a group of Journal Square residents.
Some neighborhood residents, including Bill Armbruster, have taken exception to the proposal. Armbruster, who has lived near the VIP on Van Wagenen Avenue for 22 years, thinks the loss of the diner “would be a severe blow to the community.”
Armbruster opposes the new Walgreens location not only because it doesn’t comply with zoning regulations, but also because of a concern that the neighborhood can’t support another large retail pharmacy. There is already a Duane Reade location at the nearby Journal Square PATH station, a Rite Aid on Kennedy Boulevard between Journal Square and Tonnele Avenue and a free-standing Rite Aid with front-yard parking on the corner of Sip and West Side Avenues. (In February, Walgreens announced a plan to purchase Duane Reade for $1.08 billion.)
“The last thing we need in this neighborhood is another drugstore,” Armbruster says. He worries that the Walgreens might drive one or more of the other chain pharmacies out of business, leaving behind “a big empty storefront in the heart of Journal Square” and possibly resulting in “a net loss of jobs.”
Responding to these concerns, Reid relies on simple market economics. He maintains that Walgreens wouldn’t invest “millions of dollars” in a new location if the demand weren’t present.
“Competition is a good thing,” he says. “It’s healthy.”
Apart from wrangling over technical details of zoning and demand analysis, the potential loss of a distinctive Journal Square landmark might be expected to perk up the ears of local residents and preservationists. However, up to this point, the diner’s sentimental value has kept a low profile in the conversations surrounding the proposed Walgreens. Although Armbruster says he “will be very sad if the VIP closes,” and Lopez has referred to “many fond memories of occasions [spent] with family and friends” at the diner, the opposition of the community — and the city — has not concentrated on wistful remembrances.
In fact, city planners have indicated that the administration would support a Walgreens at that location if it were part of a mid-rise development with no front-yard parking — which would still spell the loss of the VIP building. But Reid insists that in a real estate market that continues to be soft, no developer will be taking on that kind of project in Journal Square in the near future.
The nonprofit Preservation New Jersey (PNJ), which publishes an annual list of the ten most endangered historic sites in the state, included the general category of “historic diners” in its 2010 list. Opened in 1974, the VIP Diner is not protected from destruction by official landmark or historical status, but PNJ’s Michael Hirsch is unhappy to hear the news of the VIP’s possible demise.
“We think [diners are] an important part of New Jersey history and culture, and we’re always sad when one of them gets demolished,” Hirsch says.
However, in her email to constituents, Lopez notes that the responsibility to protect the building, if any, rests mostly with the property owners.
“If it was necessary for the owner of the VIP … to sell, we know [we] have to look towards the future,” Lopez writes.