Earlier this fall, members of the Regional Plan Association’s New Jersey Committee toured the construction site of Hoboken Connect, gaining firsthand insight into the challenges and immense possibilities of this transformative project. The Hoboken Terminal is no stranger to transformation, having weathered flooding, fires, expansion, partial closures, and now yet another phase of growth. Throughout its history, the terminal has endured it all and has even expanded transit service to include a bus terminal and a major light rail station and brought ferry service back online. Its historic features have survived the past century, whether behind closed doors or exposed to the elements, and are finally being revitalized through the Hoboken Connect project that will bring 704 thousand square feet of office space, two acres of open space, 70 thousand square feet of on-site retail, and 386 residential units to the very heart of downtown Hoboken.

The construction site was as busy as your typical Jersey diner on a Saturday morning. One team was carefully disassembling the terminal facade, another was excavating for the site’s new drainage system, another was constructing the new and improved bus terminal, and yet another was prepping the adjacent site for the new residential building. Meanwhile, with all of this construction, the terminal must continue to serve the nearly 50,000 commuters that depend on it everyday. Calling this operation a well-oiled machine seems like an understatement.

Evolution of the Hoboken Terminal

The site of the current terminal had several previous iterations before our current structure. It started out as a station for steam-powered ferries in the early 19th century and the country’s expansion of rail created the modern day rail-ferry connection just a few decades later. The train terminal and ferry station combination is unique in our modern era but the waterfront of Hudson County used to be dotted with train terminals just like Hoboken. Trains from all over the state would make their way to terminals in Hoboken, Weehawken, Exchange Place, or present day Liberty State Park and Newport and passengers would take the ferry to their final destination in NYC.

In 1905, after the docked Hopatcong ferry caught fire and burned down the facility, the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western (DL&W) Railroad company rebuilt the terminal we have today. At the height of rail travel, the DL&W Railroad spared no expense when rebuilding the Hoboken Terminal. They truly captured the moment of the early 20th century by creating a masterpiece of Beaux-Arts architecture. With the connection of the PATH tubes at the reopening of the terminal in 1907, this bustling concourse offered above- and below-ground rail, ferry, streetcar, and pedestrian travel while the terminal’s grand hall and Warrington Plaza truly elevated the transit hub as a work of art in and of itself.

Unfortunately, this era of the Hoboken Terminal did not last. As automobile and plane travel increased, rail and ferry ridership began to fall. Railroad companies started going under and, one by one, the other rail-ferry terminals on the west banks of the Hudson River were demolished leaving Hoboken Terminal as the last of its kind. The grand hall and ferry service closed in 1967 and eventually all remaining rail service terminating in Hudson County was diverted to Hoboken.

The current terminal was built to withstand fire but the reality of routine nuisance flooding brought on by the tides just feet away was not considered. The tracks leading up to the terminal adjacent to Observer Highway were actually once an inlet that would take in the water from the tides. Believe it or not, the dense city of Hoboken was once a lush marshland pre-colonialization. Whether the water came from the tides or the sky, the inlet along Observer Highway would flood and bring the water to the west side of Hoboken that abuts the Palisades in Jersey City. This flood pattern continues to this day even with the inlet paved over. Over time, nuisance flooding became an anticipated issue for the city of Hoboken and its terminal. However, in 2012, the worst of the flooding left the whole city and its transit system stranded and debilitated.

Superstorm Sandy Ground Zero

Superstorm Sandy was a harsh wake-up call for the entire region, especially for Hoboken and its terminal. The terminal was inundated with 5 feet of floodwater leaving behind 6 inches of mud and debris. The Hoboken PATH station experienced 8 feet of flooding and sustained serious damage. It was unlike any other flooding the city had experienced. It was several weeks before limited service to Hoboken returned and full NJT rail service wasn’t restored statewide until over a month later with routine services cuts on certain weekends to begin the long road of repairing and rebuilding the damaged infrastructure.

The immense devastation brought on the colossal task of not only rebuilding and strengthening downtown Hoboken but also reimagining how the area should be designed for the people who rely on it every day. At the time of the storm, LCOR, the Hoboken Connect developer, had already been chosen to prepare a study on a major renovation project for the terminal. Superstorm Sandy exposed many of the terminal’s vulnerabilities, which pushed the redevelopment plan to be seen in a new light and underscored the need to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of the city.

Redevelopment and Resiliency

Superstorm Sandy hit Hoboken Terminal and the surrounding area harder than any event in their history, creating a watershed moment that sparked renewed collaboration between the City of Hoboken, NJ Transit, and LCOR. The reimagined project would not only revitalize the terminal, but redefine what it meant to travel in and out of Hoboken. The three project partners created new goals for this area: improve safety and connectivity for pedestrians and commuters, enhance resiliency, and provide much-needed housing in a growing city. What came next was an incredible balancing act involving coordinating multiple phases of overlapping construction while protecting the PATH tubes right below the site, battling rising sea levels, and maintaining the active status of one of New Jersey’s busiest transit hubs.

One of the biggest wins for commuters and bus drivers will be the new and improved bus terminal slated to open in the first quarter of 2026. The new layout and pedestrian promenade will improve safety and connectivity and the expanded terminal will no longer require bus drivers to do a k-turn to arrive at their slips. Underneath that same promenade will be an updated drainage system for Warrington Plaza. The topography of this area of Hoboken forces all the draining rainwater into Warrington Plaza on its way out to the Hudson River. Because the station is situated right at sea-level and has a woefully outdated drainage system, the plaza experiences flooding even during minor rain events or a particularly strong high tide. The project partners felt strongly that in order for Warrington Plaza to become a healthy public space, they needed to address the nuisance flooding problem. The updated drainage system won’t be able to prevent another Sandy-level event but it will remedy the sunny-day flooding issue and allow the plaza to welcome people once again.

Respect for the terminal’s historic features and its place in the region’s history is clear. The RPA team witnessed the terminal’s beautiful copper facade being carefully removed piece by piece for inspection and rehabilitation by historic preservation experts. Right below that facade will be home to some of the 70 thousand square feet of terminal retail planned for the footsteps of Warrington Plaza. Behind closed doors is the defunct grand hall with Tiffany glass ceilings that will welcome visitors with new stores and eateries. Two new buildings next to the terminal will bring 704 thousand square feet of office space and 386 residential units with 20% of the units set aside for affordable housing. Each component of the reimagined Hoboken Connect site honors the terminal’s past while giving a glimpse at what it promises for the future.

A Model for Modern Transit Hubs

Hoboken Terminal was once the last of its kind but is now becoming the first of its kind. This redevelopment project is a modern day model of smart growth: transit-oriented development with climate resilience and historic preservation as core principles. In a time when many communities are looking for more housing in healthier, transit-rich areas, this project is the golden example of how to balance all of those competing demands with an excellent end-product. The Hoboken Connect project affirms the terminal’s place on the west bank of the Hudson River for decades to come and RPA is excited to see this transformation.