[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/ny...wark.html?_r=0

Revival Is Planned for a Derelict Downtown Newark Park





By LISA W. FODERARO
February 5, 2013

During a recent tour of Military Park on a frigid afternoon here, Daniel A. Biederman waved his arm at the derelict plaza before him, with its once-proud statuary gazing out at ailing trees and graffiti-covered garbage bins.
“This could be the Bryant Park of Newark, but nobody uses it,” said Mr. Biederman, the urban parks expert who two decades ago transformed that park in Midtown Manhattan from a forbidding drug haven to a jewel-box refuge. “If it was a gorgeous day in June, you’d still have six or eight people here.”

But with the city in the midst of a building boom, Military Park is poised for its own makeover. This spring, ground will be broken on a $3.25 million renovation overseen by Mr. Biederman and his firm, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures. The plan, Mr. Biederman said, is to replace unhealthy trees, plant a full acre of flowers, build a new cafe and public restroom, repair the Victorian-style lampposts (more than half are broken), create new seating areas and install custom-designed trash bins in the triangular six-acre park.

Dating to 1667, Military Park in downtown Newark has witnessed the city’s sometimes triumphant, sometimes painful history, from a colonial settlement to an industrial powerhouse to a symbol of urban decay. There are two other downtown parks, but Military Park is the closest to the central business district and, perhaps more important, will be the new front yard of Prudential, the insurance behemoth whose roots in Newark date to the 1870s. Prudential’s world headquarters is a few blocks south of the park, but the company plans to build a new $440 million tower on a site directly opposite the park. And construction is under way on Panasonic’s North American headquarters, which is moving from Secaucus to a site a block away from Military Park. It is no surprise, then, that Prudential is a pillar of the Military Park Partnership, the nonprofit group overseeing the park’s renovation.

The goal is for Military Park to be self-sustaining, a model pioneered by Bryant Park, which receives no money from New York City but reaps income from concessions, fees from office buildings and corporate sponsorships.

At the moment, the future site of Prudential’s headquarters is occupied by the long-empty S. Klein department store, whose faded sign conjures the city’s retail heyday. On the other side of the park, Theater Square Development plans to erect a residential building.

Residents and city officials hope the park’s restoration will evoke Newark’s vibrant history. In 1869, Military Park displayed what is believed to be the first public electric lights in the country. That was the year the park officially became a town commons, ending its 200-year run as a training ground for soldiers. “With new office towers on the way from Prudential and Panasonic, and new residents moving downtown,” Mayor Booker said, “a revitalized Military Park will be the central community public space.”