New Jersey Transit proposed its tentative plan for the downtown train terminal on Monday night during a well attended public meeting at the waiting room in the Lackawanna Terminal. 

The plan includes one commercial building, for which the developer and NJ Transit have a tenant in mind, who will rent the entire the building and turn it into its corporate headquarters. 

Other elements of the plan include a new and revamped bus terminal, a public plaza and an improved connection between the station and the waterfront. The new public area will be located approximately across the street from the bar Texas Arizona.

The building, which will be used for commercial use only, has not yet been designed, said Kurt Eichler from development firm LCOR Incorporated. Eichler said the building will probably be about 500,000 square feet and about 17 stories tall.  

The plan that was proposed on Monday night focused on the 1.78 acres of land at the terminal downtown. In total, NJ Transit owns roughly 54 acres in Hoboken, said John Leon, senior director of government and community relations at NJ Transit. A 2007 plan by NJ Transit involved residential high rise buildings in the downtown area. Monday's tentative plan only focused on the 1.78 plot.

The value of the project—the commercial building, a public plaza and renovating the surrounding area to improve pedestrian access—will be roughly $250 million, Leon said. In order to keep the—still anonymous but described as "world-class"—tenant interested in the location, Leon added, City Council will have to approve the plan between three and six months. 

"No tenant, no project," Leon said. 

Tax benefits, new jobs and enhanced economic development are supposed to pay for the plan, Leon said. During his presentation Leon said that the project could mean $24 million in state tax revenue for Hoboken. Local retail spending because of the influx of new people and new jobs was estimated to be $11.6 million and the construction of the project would create 800 jobs.

The terminal accommodates five forms of transportation—buses, trains, the PATH, cabs and the ferry—which makes it one of the most important transportation hubs in the country. Especially the bus terminal has been neglected and is in need of improvements, said Leon. 

Director of Transportation and Parking Ian Sacs called the plan "creative," but said it was too soon to give a lot of specifics. He said he will have to look at how the new development fits with the existing traffic patterns in the city. 

Mayor Dawn Zimmer said she was mostly at the meeting to get public input. But, she said, "it's a proposal worth considering." She stressed that she would want to know what would happen to the remaining acres that NJ Transit owns before she could make a real decision about the plan. 

"I need to understand what's going to happen in the entire project," Zimmer said. But, she said, "It's a dramatic change from the old plan."

Zimmer, who was a councilwoman when NJ Transit proposed the previous plan, was vehemently opposed to it then.

"We don't know the totality of the plan," said Perry Belfiore, who sits on the planning board and said he wouldn't vote in favor of it if it came before him. "I don't think the city should approve it without knowing the entire plan."