First addition to Hoboken’s linear waterfront park since 2007 at the Weehawken Cove will protect against future storm surges

Construction of a 2.5-acre waterfront park at the north end of Hoboken at the Weehawken Cove has started. This will be the first major addition to Hoboken’s riverfront park since Maxwell Place Park was established in 2007.

The Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) first proposed the concept for a contiguous, public park along Hoboken’s Hudson River shoreline in 1990 before any development had taken place along the waterfront. Major progress was achieved early on, in the 1990s, with the creation of Sinatra Park and then the parks at the South Waterfront, adding over 12 acres of public open space to this densely populated urban community.  

On August 3, 2022, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla announced that Gov. Murphy had secured $100 million in New Jersey’s state budget for the Hudson River Rebuild by Design project that is being managed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. These funds will pay for the construction of the park at the Weehawken Cove that includes a concealed flood wall built into the park design. 

This Rebuild by Design project began in 2013 with a $230 million federal grant designated primarily to protect against flood surges similar to what occurred during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The flood walls are being constructed at the low-lying south end of Hoboken extending into Jersey City and the north end extending into Weehawken. Most of the $100 million will cover increased costs for the surge protection measures.

Additional progress will take place this year at Hoboken’s waterfront with the City’s Sinatra Drive Project and its acquisition of the Union Dry Dock site. The Sinatra Drive Project began in December 2021 when the City awarded a contract to Kimley-Horn to design and oversee the reconstruction of Sinatra Drive from Fourth Street up to Hudson, near Eleventh that will include a protected bicycle pathway. 

FBW, concerned about the limited landscape plan for the Sinatra Drive Project unveiled in May of 2022, hired the landscape architecture firm, Arnold Associates, to develop a street tree proposal. Stephen Lederach of Arnold Associates presented this plan to City officials that includes a row of shade trees lining Sinatra Drive that would tie together the landscape design at the South Waterfront up to Maxwell Place Park. The plan includes details on how the trees should be planted with the proper volume of soil to ensure that they thrive and eventually form a canopy over the sidewalk and bicycle pathway.