Area 5 West Developer to Move a Step Closer to Approval Monday

The Fort Lee Planning Board will hold the third of four scheduled special meetings Monday on Tucker Development Corporation’s site plan for the roughly eight-acre West parcel of Redevelopment Area 5, otherwise known as “Hudson Lights at Fort Lee.”

Tucker is seeking final approval of its plan for more than 165,000 square feet of retail space—enough for about 20 stores and a few restaurants—a 175-room hotel, about 477 residential units and parking for an estimated 1,200 cars.

The previous two meetings—one on April 23, and another on May 7—have largely focused on signage and traffic, respectively.

Tucker has estimated that the “Hudson Lights” project would add 560 to 1,200 “car trips” during peak weekday hours and as many as 1,500 such trips during Saturday peak hours.

The sign variances requested by the developer would go a long way toward attracting high-end retailers, the developer contends.

The mixed-used development would be “appropriate in dignity, scope and accommodating the esthetics of the town,” said Tucker attorney Francis Giantomasi at the . 

“We think it is historically important for Fort Lee,” Giantomasi said.

Although the meeting on May 7 ended before people had the chance to question Tucker’s traffic expert, Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich last week urged people to attend Monday’s meeting.

“On May 14, there will be a continued meeting on the Tucker development, which is more commonly referred to as the West parcel,” Sokolich said Thursday. “That’s the parcel that’s going to be the mixed used parcel—approximately 168,000 square feet of retail.”

Sokolich added, “We encourage you to invite as many people as possible; there will be continued testimony, continued presentation of that application.”

In March, the board of the long-vacant, 16-acre Redevelopment Area 5. , which the board approved unanimously, includes two 47-story towers with 902 luxury residential units, a 1.7-acre public park, a restaurant and a small movie theater, among other amenities.

Taken together, the two plans—Tucker’s for the West parcel, and FLRA’s for the East—are estimated to be about a $1 billion investment in the 16 acres of land just south of the George Washington Bridge that Sokolich has repeatedly emphasized have been “vacant and fallow” for more than 45 years.

The borough has a documents repository on its website for both FLRA and Tucker.

The Fort Lee Planning Board meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the at 1355 Inwood Terrace.