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Wachovia makes Trenton home
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Workers pinned Wachovia Bank letters to the side of 32 E. Front St. yesterday, as the bank's new regional headquarters is set to come alive next week with the arrival of 125 employees, according to Susanne Svizeny, southern New Jersey regional president.
The bank will take up three floors - roughly 44,000 square feet - of the five-story building, and one of the offices will house Svizeny, who expects the building to play an important role in the bank's effort to drum up business from Trenton and the state government.
"This is a market that we believe has a lot of potential in central and southern New Jersey," the regional president said yesterday.
It is a homecoming of sorts for Svizeny, who started her career in Trenton as a management trainee for New Jersey National, a bank that later became, in succession, CoreStates, First Union and Wachovia.
Her division serves Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and all counties farther south. Employees who will share the new offices include financial experts, salespeople, community relations people and technology experts.
In addition to edging closer to state and private power brokers in the capital city, Wachovia hopes to set an example for community reinvestment by coming to the struggling urban center that often gets passed over by big business in favor of wealthier zones.
"We're demonstrating a leadership position. Our hope is that other companies do the same, not only in Trenton but around New Jersey," said Svizeny.
The regional headquarters has been in Ewing off Scotch Road for many years, and Wachovia allowed its lease there to expire this month. The building at 32 E. Front St. was previously known as Liberty Commons and was to be the home of Hill-Wallack, a West Windsor law firm that lost interest in coming to Trenton amid construction delays that left the building frozen in a state of partial completion for 14 months, ending last summer when Matrix Development took over the project.
No announcements have been made regarding the future occupants of the other two floors in the building. Wachovia will not maintain a branch at 32 E. Front St., having a drive-up at West State and Warren streets that it prefers to retain, Svizeny said.
© 2006 The Times of Trenton
City eyes Corrections site for new housing
Friday, January 06, 2006
By EVA LOAYZA
Staff Writer
TRENTON - The city council introduced an ordinance last night that would approve the Cadwalader Estates Redevelopment Area Plan, which could bring as many as 250 market-rate homes to the West Ward.
The houses would be built on property off Stuyvesant Avenue that now is offices for the state Department of Corrections.
Dennis Gonzalez, assistant business administrator and acting director of housing and development, said the city has been negotiating for some time with the state over the 45.6-acre tract, but without success. Now, he said, the city "will engage Gov.-elect Corzine when the `elect' part of the title goes away."
Gonzalez said the state had the property appraised at $13.5 million.
He said city officials hope to reach an agreement with the state about acquiring development rights within six months.
Other facilities would be needed to accommodate the displaced state employees.
No developer is attached to the project yet because the redevelopment plan hasn't been approved by the council, said Gonzalez. The public hearing and final vote on the ordinance is scheduled for the Jan. 19 council meeting.
It has been estimated that about 250 houses in the $400,000 price range could be built on the site.
In other business, Gonzalez said the city, the state Department of Transportation and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission will work to redesign the part of South Warren Street parallel to Route 1 by moving the street so `it goes more directly towards the free bridge" and allow the DOT and the bridge commission to make improvements to Route 1.
He said the change fits with a development project the city has planned for that area.
Work on South Warren Street would not start for another two years, he said.
As the meeting wound down, Councilman-at-large Manny Segura told Police Director Joseph Santiago he is concerned about some residents' claims they were mistreated by police dispatchers.
"The whole communication room has to be addressed," said Segura. He claimed one dispatcher told a resident who did not speak very good English "we are not here to serve people like you, we are here to serve Americans."
East Ward Councilman Gino Melone has raised the same issue in the past.
© 2006 The Times of Trenton
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