A proposal to tear down existing residential buildings along John F. Kennedy Boulevard near West 13th Street and replace them with a six-story, 66-unit development has hit a snag over unpaid property taxes, pushing the matter back to Bayonne's Planning Board on Nov. 9.
The board opened its hearing on the project in October but continued it after members raised questions about the unpaid taxes and about prior approvals granted under the previous administration, according to TAPinto. The applicant, Kennedy Boulevard MW Urban Renewal, LLC, requested a temporary waiver tied to the back taxes, and developer representatives told the board that the outstanding taxes would be paid as a condition of the project's approval, per the same report.
City records list the application, numbered P-25-026, under Kennedy Boulevard MW UR LLC and 373 Kennedy Blvd Partners LLC, covering the addresses 361-363, 365-371 and 373 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, according to the City of Bayonne's planning board exhibits. Those filings describe a six-story mixed-use building with 66 residential units and 71 parking spaces, matching the project's scope as outlined in both the city documents and TAPinto's reporting.
Retail Space Figures Don't Quite Match
Exactly how much ground-floor retail the building would include depends on which source you check. The city's application listing puts the commercial space at approximately 663 square feet, while TAPinto's account of the project describes approximately 600 square feet of ground-floor retail. The discrepancy has not been resolved in the available records.
The application also seeks submission waivers for Checklist Items I.2 and I.7, along with Redevelopment Plan Items in Sections 6.9(D) and 6.9(H), according to the city's planning board exhibits. Beyond the unit count and parking, the broader redevelopment plan calls for upgraded pedestrian amenities, lighting and landscaping, improvements to the building's side and rear elevations, integrated public space, and energy-efficient building systems paired with environmental stewardship goals, per TAPinto.
A Redevelopment Designation Years in the Making
The site's path to redevelopment began well before this fall's hearings. Bayonne's Municipal Council designated Block 262, Lots 7, 8 and 9 — the parcels at the heart of this project — a non-condemnation area in need of redevelopment by resolution dated May 15, 2024, according to city ordinance O-25-04. The Planning Board itself held a public hearing on the redevelopment plan on May 14, 2024, and recommended its adoption after finding it consistent with the city's Master Plan.
The council formally adopted the 361-373 John F. Kennedy Boulevard Redevelopment Plan on Jan. 28, 2025, with the ordinance taking effect Feb. 11, 2025, per the city's ordinance records. That groundwork set the stage for the current site-plan application, though the tax and waiver questions raised this fall are separate issues now before the board.
Other Bayonne Projects Offer a Point of Comparison
The Kennedy Boulevard proposal is one of several mixed-use projects moving through Bayonne's approval process this year. The Planning Board approved preliminary and final site plans for a six-story, 114-unit mixed-use building at the former St. Michael's church site, with conditions requiring further coordination with city engineers, according to Citizen Portal. The board also recommended a redevelopment plan to the City Council for the former T & J car wash site at 958-968 Broadway and East 46th Street, proposing up to about 130 residential units with structured parking that could include an automated electronic parking system, Citizen Portal reported separately.
A smaller residential project at Meadow and 19th streets was amended earlier from 14 units and 18 off-street parking spaces to 22 units and 24 spaces, according to the Hudson Reporter. None of those cases directly resolves the open tax and waiver questions tied to the Kennedy Boulevard site, but they show a city planning board actively reshaping several blocks at once.
Whether the board grants the requested waiver, how the retail-space discrepancy gets settled, and whether the back taxes are paid before any vote remain open questions. The hearing is set to resume Nov. 9, when the Planning Board is expected to take up the application again.
