A popular restaurant in the Valley will be soon demolished to make way for two separate development, bringing four six-story apartment buildings the neighborhood. The demolition of Libretti’s marks an incredible transformation that is on the verge of happening in a historic district known for both its bygone hat factories and its devastating floods.
The first 91-unit project is called Nassau Commons, which includes two buildings connected with a second-floor skybridge. Next door to the project is another 202-unit development also with side-by-side six-story buildings connected with a skybridge. The fact that both projects are linked with a second-story pedestrian walkway is more than a just an architectural coincidence: it allows the developers to comply with the Department of Environmental Protection’s stormwater regulations.
“Without this bridge, we would not be able to propose any sort of development due to the fact that this entire property and everything adjacent to it is in a flood zone,” said project engineer Soufiane El Moussi, an associate at Inglese Architecture + Engineer, who worked on the Nassau Commons project.
One of the buildings he designed has its entrance on South Jefferson Street, which can sometimes see three feet of water in the worst floods. In the case of a storm, the bridge allows residents to cross to the neighboring building, El Moussi said.
Last November, Valley residents met the developer behind the Nassau Commons — Vida Capital — at Libretti’s and expressed mixed feelings about the proposal.
Jeff Langsam, who was one of the first tenants to move into the restored Berg Hat Factory — now called a Hat City Lofts — when it opened, said he wants to see more businesses and restaurants within walking distance, a problem compounded by the loss of Libretti’s.
“There’s nothing here to walk to,” he said.
But longtime residents fear that the size of the development — bringing a total of 300 new apartments — will become a headache for them, especially in terms of street parking and the worsening of floods.
“There’s no consideration for anybody else and their livelihood and how they want to live,” said Vene Nicole Irvin, whose home on South Jefferson Street has been in the family since 1951.
“When the water comes, where’s the water going to go? In our house,” said Joanne Haynes, who has lived on McChesney Street for 31 years.
Moussi said that the building was designed to be “flood resistant with an above-ground vault to capture up to eight-feet off water. But that didn’t seem to put Haynes at ease.
“I think the city needs to understand how we feel about this whole thing,” she said. “We don’t see this as an investment for the Valley.”
Another concern is that the Nassau Commons, despite being located in a historic district, did not come before the Historic Preservation Commission for approval. The Morrow Street development finally came to the Orange HPC eight months after it received Planning Board approval. But the ordinance requires that the HPC’s approval comes first. Karen Jeffries-Wells, who founded the commission two decades ago, believes there is an effort at Orange City Hall to undermine the HPC’s oversight.
“If you look at the historic preservation ordinance, we are authorized to make those decisions,” said Jeffries-Wells, standing a few feet away from Mayor Dwayne Warren, who said little at the meeting. “We’re being ignored and that’s against the law if you look at it.
Shirley Del Rosario, managing partner at Vida Capital, said the building was design in line with the Central Valley Redevelopment Plan. “We worked with the city, and the city has a vision for this area,” said Del Rosario who noted the proximity of the Highland Avenue Station as . “If you look at the redevelopment — that’s why the want to see projects like this because they want to see more transit-oriented projects.”
“It’s a growing community and we’re looking to revitalize underutilized properties,” she said.
