The Grant USA Tower was a proposed 121-story skyscraper planned for

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

by developer Harry Grant. Harry Grant was an Iraqi-born developer who was based out of New Jersey who financed the gold dome on top of

Newark City Hall Newark City Hall is located at Government Center in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The building was built in 1902 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 17, 1978. History The building is a five ...

The tower was to be located over the old

Central Railroad of New Jersey The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

Newark and New York Railroad The Newark and New York Railroad was a passenger rail line that ran between Downtown Newark and the Communipaw Terminal at the mouth of the North River (Hudson River) in Jersey City, bridging the Hackensack River and Passaic River just north ...

Terminal, near Broad and Lafayette Street. In 2007, the incomplete Renaissance Mall was torn down to build the

Prudential Center Prudential Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the central business district of Newark, New Jersey. Opened in 2007, it is the home of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the men's basketball program of Seton Hal ...

. The old and unused part of the train station below, which was to serve as the foundation of the tower, remains in place. There are currently plans to connect the old portion of the train station with the Prudential Center, with the idea of turning it into a museum.Star Ledger Archives October 24, 2007
/ref> Had it been completed as planned by 1986, it would have contained the tallest hotel, and would have been the tallest building and the

tallest structure The tallest structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa skyscraper at . Listed are guyed masts (such as telecommunication masts), self-supporting towers (such as the CN Tower), skyscrapers (such as the Willis Tower), oil platforms, electricit ...

at the time.

Description

The proposed 1,750 foot, 121-story tower was to be clad in "dollar green" glass, topped by a golden

American bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

statue atop a flagpole, and large gold letters spelling out "USA" at the peak. The tower was to contain over 3 million square feet of office space, a hotel, convention facilities, and a promenade with an ice skating rink. There were plans for a 21-floor

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

above the 121st floor, which would have been the top floor of the hotel component. Grant also proposed a privately-financed, 125-seat

monorail A monorail (from "mono", meaning "one", and " rail") is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam. Colloquially, the term "monorail" is often used to describe any form of elevated rail or people mover. More accurat ...

system that would have run from the tower to the Newark Liberty International Airport. The tower was to be built on the block bounded by Broad, Lafayette, Edison, and Mulberry Street, purchased by Grant for $1.2 million in a city auction in 1985. Construction on the first component of the project, the 5-story, 250,000 square-foot Renaissance Mall, was underway in 1989. The mall was to feature an international food court, a floating

piano bar A piano bar (also known as a piano lounge) consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician. Piano bars can be located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, office building lobby, restaurant, or on a cruise ship. Usu ...

, office space, and

horse and buggy ] A horse and buggy (in American English) or horse and carriage (in British English and American English) refers to a light, simple, two-person carriage of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, drawn usually by one or sometimes by two h ...

rides around downtown Newark. An accompanying 30-story tower called "Grant USA I", was to be connected to the mall via

skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclo ...

References

{{coord, 40.732755, -74.172242, display=title Unbuilt buildings and structures in the United States Skyscrapers in Newark, New Jersey