PERTH AMBOY – Lawyer James Clark came before the Council to make a brief presentation of plans for renovating the dilapidated Hobart  Plaza Building. “It’s 110 ft. frontage on Hobart Street. Two thirds of the property is the building and one third of the site is parking. When the building was constructed in the 1950’s there was retail space on the first floor and the second to fifth floors were office space. Recently only one retail space has been occupied and there is only one heating system for the building which is in disrepair. The owner of this property also has 19 parking spaces on Hobart & Market Street.”

“If the Council approves the plans the Board of Adjustment would be our next step. The architectural features on the front of the building will be preserved.”

An architect involved in the project said, “We are looking to replace the windows and there will be 36 units total – all rentals. The first floor will be retail and the second to fifth floors will be apartments. There will be nine units per floor, each floor will have one two-bedroom apartment and the other units will be one-bedroom apartments. There will be 27 parking spaces for the 36 units.”

Business Administrator Greg Fehrenbach said that the ordinance calls for at least 40 parking spaces for this amount of units.

Councilman Kenny Gonzalez brought it to their attention that the Amboy Mall has the Jefferson Street Parking Deck one block away.