The cafe can no longer be a destination restaurant and must serve park users
The patio enclosure remains, obstructing a portion of the state-mandated Hudson River Waterfront Walkway
The Sinatra Park Cafe prior to the addition of the enclosed patio.
FBW | November 20, 2024
The City of Hoboken has again approved a lease agreement with Blue Eyes Restaurant at the Sinatra Park Cafe. In response to the City’s RFP (request for proposals), Blue Eyes submitted the winning bid of $100 per square foot, which translates to a monthly rent of $15,617. This lease also stipulates that Blue Eyes invest $500,000 worth of improvements into the structure over the agreement’s 5-year term. After a series of delays, the Hoboken City Council gave final approval for the lease at its November 18th meeting.
The terms of the new lease, however, have been substantially altered. The lease states that the cafe must serve park users and be open 8 hours daily during park hours. Tables must be open to all park users, and table service will no longer be permitted. The operator must serve various cafe menu options, including grab-and-go items and non-alcoholic beverages at diverse price points. No outdoor seating will be permitted.
The NJDEP Green Acres Program provided funding to build Sinatra Park in the 1990s. Green Acres regulations require that the park space must be preserved solely for recreation and conservation purposes. Destination restaurants are a prohibited use. In fact, the Sinatra Park Cafe, as originally conceived, was affordable and served patrons of the park, not a clientele seeking a fine dining experience. Green Acres regulators must approve any lease of park space. Ten years ago, however, the City of Hoboken failed to obtain Green Acres approval for its original lease with Blue Eyes Restaurant.
Beginning early this year, the City of Hoboken worked closely with NJDEP regulators to correct this problem and ensure that the new lease adheres to the Green Acres regulations. The $100 per square foot lease, however, greatly exceeds any comparable rents. It is unlikely that Blue Eyes can afford to operate with this exceedingly high rent under the altered terms of the new lease.
In 2015, after the City signed the original lease with Blue Eyes Restaurant, an enclosed patio was added, providing 924 additional square feet of space. As a result, people walking or running along Hoboken’s waterfront walkway are forced into a narrow 6-foot-wide strip between the enclosed patio and the amphitheater that steps down to the river. This violates the State DEP’s requirement for a paved 16-foot-wide walkway. Unfortunately, when the City put this out to bid last March, it included the current enclosed patio that wraps the front of the Sinatra Park Cafe as one of the conditions of the lease.
Since 1990, FBW has successfully thwarted a number of private projects from being built on the river-side of Sinatra Drive, including a 33-story office complex for Pier A, 500,000 square feet of residential development on Pier C and townhouses slated for the piers at Maxwell Place. As a result, the water’s edge is clearly dedicated to the public for most of Hoboken’s shoreline, the restaurant at the Sinatra Park Cafe, for the past ten years, being one of the exceptions.
Related Links
Letter to Editor: Hoboken’s proposed Sinatra Park Cafe lease would violate New Jersey’s walkway rules
The Sinatra Park Cafe: Diverting public space for an exclusive, private use
Proposals to monetize and privatize portions of Maritime Park run counter to the goal of a truly public waterfront
Can the City of Hoboken afford the $74.5 million price tag to build Maritime Park?
The urban design principles that make for successful waterfronts
The Hudson River waterfront and the planning process: public or private?
Plan for the Hoboken Waterfront
Public vs. Private