A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF WESTSIDE PARK
Part I of an Exploratory Study to Establish a Special Improvement
District on Springfield and South Orange Avenues, Newark, NJ
Report to the Corinthian Housing Development Corporation and New Community Corporation
May 11, 1998
Physical Inventory
From our study we were able to determine the various land uses in the target areas. Nearly, 54% of all existing uses is either mixed use or commercial/retail. In addition, almost 13% of the land along both strips are vacant. The breakdown of these uses can be seen below in Table XIV.
Table XIV: Land-Use Distribution
| Land-Use Type |
Frequency |
Percentage |
| Mixed Use |
100 |
30.4% |
| Commercial/Retail |
77 |
23.4% |
| Vacant Land |
42 |
12.8% |
| Vacant Building |
39 |
11.9% |
| Public Institution |
28 |
8.5% |
| Parking Lot |
17 |
5.2% |
| Multi-family |
15 |
4.6% |
| Warehouse |
8 |
2.4% |
| Auto Service/Storage |
1 |
0.3% |
| Single/Two Family |
1 |
0.3% |
| Private Institution |
1 |
0.3% |
| Total |
329 |
100.0% |
Source: Newark Tax Assessment Office, 1998
Concluding from the Table above, the five most common land use types in Springfield and South Orange Avenues are: Mixed-Use with 30.4%, Commercial with 23.4%, Vacant Land with 12.8%, Vacant Building with 11.9%, and Public Institutions with 8.5%. The importance of business properties in the land-use composition of the two avenues is reflected on the high percentages of commercial/retail and mixed-use properties. There are 168 business properties in the two corridors and the location of these business are divided in 30.4% being located in mixed-use properties while 23.4% in commercial properties. The most common type of business in the area are manufacturing, churches with about 19%, and food-related businesses, where convenience store accounts for 13.1% and fast food for 12.5%. One void that stands out is the lack of social services organizations in the target area, making up only .3% of the total business types. Finally, from also viewing this table, it is apparent that there is a lack of single and duplex housing complexes. This was a major trend that came about due to the Newark riots. Private, for-profit developers were really driven out of the area shortly after the riots because it was not economically feasible to make a profit on building a house in Newark. In the twenty five years following the riots, less than fifteen single family homes were built by private developers. This is what caused major intervention by the non-profit sector to fill this void and develop housing targeted at a low-income population. However, in the past two years the city has seen an increase in construction. The void of single family homes remains in Newark. A more conclusive Table with the distribution of commercial types in the two avenues is provided on the business section.
