New Jersey Transit presented a new version of its $250 million plan for the Hoboken terminal on Tuesday night. 

NJ Transit and designers from Skidmore, Owings & Merril attended the meeting to talk to members of the public. No council members attended. 

The plan focuses on the 1.78 acres of land at the terminal downtown. In total, NJ Transit owns roughly 54 acres in Hoboken. 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.

Zimmer said she is working on an inter local agreement between the city and NJ Transit, to make sure that Hoboken will have a say in what happens to the rest of the 54 acres. 

"Nothing will advance without the blessing of the city," Leon said Tuesday night. 

Before the current plan can be approved, Zimmer said, a "consensus on the inter local agreement" will have to be reached. 

NJ Transit Director of Government and Community Relations John Leon said NJ Transit is open to reaching an inter local agreement with the city.

At a better attended meeting in September, NJ Transit proposed the initial version of the plan, but went back to the drawing board after hearing feedback from the public. One of the biggest changes that was made, was the way buses will drive through the terminal. The old plan proposed that buses exit the terminal onto Hudson Place. Zimmer said this would have been a "dealbreaker."

Under the new version, buses don't go onto Hudson Place and make a loop within the terminal. 

The value of the project—which includes a commercial building, a public plaza and a renovation of the surrounding area to improve pedestrian access—will be roughly $250 million, Leon said. There is a tenant interested in the building, but the identity of the firm is kept confidential. This tenant would take up the entire building, said Leon. 

What will happen to the rest of the 54 acres of land is still unclear. Currently, NJ Transit is only looking for approval for the area around the Hoboken Terminal. 

"We wanted to do this site," Leon said. "It makes sense and we have a tenant in place."

Whether the tenant will occupy the building will depend on the timing of the approval of the plan.

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.  

The building—which, Leon said, will be 18 stories high and thus shorter than the W Hotel—will be made with copper, and will change colors with the seasons. 

It's still unclear how long this plan will take and when the City Council will approve it and send it to the Planning Board. 

Leon said that optimistically there would be "some resolution" about the plan by the end of the first quarter of 2011.