Jersey City's Sixth Street Embankment saved from demolition

By Margaret Schmidt

May 17, 2009, 10:07AM

Developer Steve Hyman has lost a bid to tear down the Sixth Street Embankment in Jersey City, a series of raised railroad rights of way his wife owns that he has been unable to develop for years.

According to The Jersey Journal, the Historic Preservation Commission was unanimous Thursday night in denying developer Hyman's request to tear the embankment down.

Hyman made the request claiming "economic hardship" based on a city ordinance that allows the commission to let developers tear down historic structures if the developer can show that they are unable to get a "reasonable" return on the amount the property is currently worth.

The commission deemed the property non-commercial and found that Hyman failed to prove he wouldn't be able to make a reasonable return without tearing down the walls, the paper said.

Stretching from Marin Boulevard to Brunswick Street, the embankment has been at the center of a long and costly struggle among Jersey City, the Embankment Preservation Coalition and Hyman.

The coalition volunteers want to preserve it as open space. Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy wants a combination of open space and a light rail link. And Hyman -- whose wife, Victoria, purchased the property from Conrail for $3 million in 2005 -- wants to build housing.

Hyman plans to appeal the decision, said Hyman attorney Dan Horgan.

"He believes the process is so arbitrary and so mean-spirited that it will be thrown out by the courts," he said.