Pandemic idles paving work at H Mart, apartment construction at old Record site

NO SALE: The new H Mart on Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry is marooned in a sea of paving material behind a wall of concrete blocks, above and below, but work to level and finish the parking lot of the Korean supermarket and the rest of the new shopping center appears to have been suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.

260 BERGEN TURNPIKE: The 14.6-acre shopping center site is owned by 250 Little Ferry TL LLC of Englewood Cliffs and assessed at $12.5 million. The owner paid $407,500 in property taxes in 2019.

GARDEN APARTMENTS: Garden apartments border the construction site, above and below.

OLD H MART: In front of the old H Mart on Wednesday, the only sign of activity was this excavation power shovel being operated atop a huge pile of paving material, above and below.

CLOSED JULY 31: The old H Mart in Little Ferry closed last July 31, forcing customers to drive to the chain's Korean supermarkets in Ridgefield or Fort Lee until the new store opens.

IDLE BUILDING SITES: Meanwhile, at the old site of The Record in Hackensack, above right and below, I saw no activity on Wednesday, postponing the dreams of the original owners, the Borg family, of further riches. They sold North Jersey Media Group, their newspaper-and-magazine publishing company, to Gannett for nearly $40 million in cash in July 2016, but held onto nearly 20 acres along River Street.

RUSSO DEVELOPMENT: The Borgs have partnered with Russo Development, based in Carlstadt. The company website says Vermella Hackensack at 150 River St. will include 653 luxury apartments (studio to 3 bedrooms) and 17,000 square feet of retail, with the first phase to open by 2021.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON