With garage repairs under way, Tulane Street project is step closer

Erection of delayed plaza pergola also seen near

By: Courtney Gross
   Long-awaited improvements to the Spring Street Garage have begun and the success of the repairs will determine when construction will start for Building C of Princeton’s downtown redevelopment project.
   Robert Powell, principal of developer Nassau HKT, said ground cannot be broken on the 72,000-square-foot mixed-use building slated for the Tulane Street surface parking lot — better known as Building C — until leakage problems on the bottom level of the Spring Street Garage have been completed.
   The Structural Group of Hawthorne has been contracted for the garage work, Mr. Powell said, and repairs, based on the current pace of the work, could be completed by the end of the month.
   The repairs were started last week, he added, and the lower level should be open for the holiday season.
   Once initial repairs on the garage have been completed, which includes anchoring the bottom concrete slab of the parking facility, Nassau HKT can determine when construction can begin on Building C. The building would include a gourmet market, 53 residential units and a courtyard.
   "The borough wants the availability of the lower level of the garage before it closes the Tulane Street lot," Mr. Powell said.
   When the garage work is completed, Mr. Powell said, Nassau HKT will monitor its success and decide how to proceed. Mr. Powell predicted that Building C construction could begin in November, December or, in the worst-case scenario, January.
   Mr. Powell also said the appropriate approvals and permits have been given for Building C.
   The water seepage problems in the basement of the garage have persisted for several months and were originally supposed to be dealt with in the summer.
   In other redevelopment news, Mr. Powell said the borough and Nassau HKT are getting closer to erecting the much-delayed pergola in the plaza adjoining the Princeton Public Library. The project was set back when the borough could not get the necessary easement from an adjacent property owner to put a Verizon utility line underground, he noted.
   Mr. Powell said there has been a breakthrough and the only necessary step left would be for the borough to approve an expenditure for Verizon to take down the line. Once the expenditure is approved, it will take only a few days for the pergola to be erected, he said.
   Mr. Powell said the pergola has been sitting, assembled, in storage for the past year and a half. Currently, a chain link fence is in its place, which some residents and nearby retailers have called an eyesore.
   Much of this work represents the first phase of the downtown redevelopment project, which includes the five-story Witherspoon House, the plaza and pergola, and the garage. The second phase includes Building C.