Residents are so fed up with the noise that lasts until 2 a.m. some nights, they say, that they book hotel rooms and drive around aimlessly so their children can sleep.
Shows at the Newark Waterfront Center end on one note: chaos.
Locals say tipsy concertgoers spill into the street at 2 a.m. on a busy stretch of McCarter Highway.
They snarl traffic, leaving paths of food, cans, broken glass and vandalism in their wake. Local business owners say they dread weekends in the summer.
But the public disturbance doesn't stop in the city's Central Ward.
It extends all the way across the Passaic River to Harrison, where luxury condo owners are so fed up with pumping beats rattling their windows into the morning that they book hotel rooms on concert nights.
Some drive around for hours just so their children can fall asleep.
"We want to get rid of them," said Gary Singh, an attendant at the gas station next to the venue. "There should be a limit. We are good neighbors, but if you're doing things that suffer others (sic), it doesn't make sense."
That suffering hit a whole new level the morning of Oct 1.
Garcia de Souza, 43, of Newark, was killed at about 1 a.m. while crossing the highway after a concert featuring a Brazilian music artist at the waterfront center, according to prosecutors in Essex County.
The vehicle that hit de Souza didn't stop, and, according to authorities, police don't have any suspects in the case. The death has raised yet more questions about how, despite all the problems, the shows go on.
A three-month NJ Advance Media investigation into the Newark Waterfront Center highlights a gray area in the state's liquor laws. The banquet hall doesn't have a liquor license, but instead repeatedly relies on one-time permits to serve alcohol. The center has held outdoor concerts that violate multiple local laws, including noise ordinances, yet the facility has never received a citation from the city, the investigation found.
These practices have allowed the club to not only avoid shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a liquor license, but also, local officials say, put its thousands of visitors in danger.
After NJ Advance Media began asking police questions in September about the Newark Waterfront Center, the city's public safety office put out a press release saying it was shutting down a concert scheduled for Halloween. The city's public safety director, Anthony Ambrose, said his office began investigating the location after de Souza's death.
"It was definitely a public safety hazard without a doubt," Ambrose said in a recent interview.
One of the owners of the waterfront center, Javier Gonzalez, said the building will no longer have concerts that end past 10 p.m. when the city's ordinance calls for noise levels to be under a certain decibel reading.
"We are doing some things to correct that, so we don't have issues with the residents around us," Gonzalez said.
He disputes claims that chaos ensues following every concert, saying there is ample parking in a deck across the street.
"Has it maybe been chaos once or twice? It probably has," Gonzalez said. "Nobody is perfect. We try to do things the most right possible way we can."
As for the liquor licenses, Gonzalez said they are legal and that people who rent his space for parties follow the proper application process with the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
No liquor license, no problem
The Newark Waterfront Center is located on a bustling stretch of McCarter Highway in the shadows of where the Newark Bears once played ball. It's in an area that has few residents.
But just across the river is prime real estate in Harrison, ripe with redevelopment in recent years. One of the newer developments, the Riverpark at Harrison, is a luxury condominium complex that sells units for half of a million dollars.
The Newark Waterfront Center was a union hall that sold in 2012 to its current owners, who turned it into a banquet hall that rents out space for events. A party for 50 guests costs approximately $1,300.
However, in recent years, the hall turned a rear lot into a quasi-outdoor concert venue akin to the Stone Pony Summerstage in Asbury Park, hosting large-scale productions. A hulking tent shields guests from inclement weather and a stage with a large video screen is brought in.
A music festival held in July at the Newark Waterfront Center. (Courtesy of Carlos Ramirez)
The concert promoters, who are often based out of Brazil, pay between $10,000 and $15,000 for the space, said one of the promoters, Clerio Braga of B Shows Entertainment.
The Newark Waterfront Center currently has an application filed with the Newark ABC office to obtain a permanent liquor license. Ambrose said the application is under review.
NJ Advance Media's investigation found that the NWC has obtained two types of one-time permits for specific events it has frequently hosted on weekends since 2015: catering permits and social affairs permits.
A social affairs permit allows a religious group or nonprofit to serve alcohol at fundraisers, according to the state ABC handbook. From 2015 to 2017, 21 social affairs permits have been issued to 13 nonprofit organizations hosting events at the Newark Waterfront Center, according to records obtained through the state's Open Public Records Act.
Graphic by Alex Napoliello
The permits, which cost between $100 and $150, are filed through the municipal ABC office in Newark and are then sent to the state office in Trenton for final approval. The application is rigorous and requires organizations seeking permits to provide documentation and outlines of the events.
Catering permits, the other type the hall's received, allow a location in the city that has an existing liquor license to serve alcohol in a different location for a specific event. The events that qualify for a catering permit, according to the ABC handbook, are events with a "single, special, non-recurring purpose, such as a wedding reception, anniversary dinner, Bar Mitzvah dinner or grand opening."
"The Division will not issue a Catering Permit to authorize the sale/service of alcoholic beverages at a location if such issuance will create the impression to the general public that the permitted premises may be licensed," the handbook states.
Public records show the liquor license held by Damelyx Inc., which owns the Mercedes and Mink Cocktail Lounge on Springfield Avenue in Newark, has been used to obtain catering permits for 12 of the 16 events held at the Newark Waterfront Center in 2017 that served alcohol. And in some cases, they are used for concerts that collect money for tickets.
On the night the pedestrian was killed leaving a concert, the catering permit was approved for Damelyx Inc. The promoter of the show that night, Braga of B Shows Entertainment, said the owner of the venue gets a cut from the ticket sales at the door.
Gonzalez, the owner of the NWC, said the entity that rents the space files for the ABC permit. When reached for comment, the owner of Damelyx Inc. said he had to speak with the ABC before disclosing information to a reporter. He did not answer follow up phone calls.
A statement from the state ABC office said, "the ABC's determination (on whether or not a temporary license is approved) will always be dependent on the unique facts presented in the application."
The Newark Waterfront Center, Ambrose said, was indicating in the ABC applications that between 300 and 500 people would be attending their events, but that it was actually attracting thousands of concertgoers.
"That probably should have been in the arena rather than on that site," Ambrose said. "To me, that was our main purpose for shutting it down. Also, they did have a CO (certificate of occupancy), however, they had no permit for the stage, so that's an issue."
Alex Napoliello | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
'They don't know any kind of respect'
In the weeks following the crash, residents and business owners interviewed by NJ Advance Media described the area during the outdoor concerts as chaotic and "absolute nonsense."
The concertgoers park their cars in every nook and cranny along McCarter Highway and the heavy flow of pedestrian traffic is a danger not only to them but drivers as well, neighboring business owners say.
"They park anywhere, they don't care," said Singh, an attendant at Fuel 4 gas station, which shares a property line with the back of the NWC lot where the stage is located.
"It's very hard for us to stay here," he continued. "It impacts our business, a lot."
Cars for concerts at the Newark Waterfront Center use a gas station for parking and block the entrance, workers say. (submitted photo)
The gas station shares a building with a car mechanic garage, which had its fence broken by a large tractor-trailer carrying equipment for a concert, the owner said.
"They pretty much take over the location," said the owner, who did not want to be named. "They bring such a large crowd without any type of control. They block the place. They don't know any kind of respect."
Both Singh and the mechanic said the police do come when they call. But because there are so many cars parked, he said, there's not much they can do.
"By the time you call a tow truck, they're gone," he said.
When workers return Monday mornings after a weekend of concerts, they say they have to spend an hour cleaning up trash.
Police records obtained by NJ Advance Media show officers have responded to the area at least 20 times since 2016. Those reports include three noise complaints, three fights at the location and four calls for a sick or injured person, including one person hit with a bottle.
Residents in the area say the concerts have been going on since 2015, but the summer of 2017 was the worst.
A statement from the Board of Trustees at Riverpark at Harrison said the Newark Waterfront Center has "created a great nuisance for our residents" over the past couple years.
"The music and noise starts in the evening and continues well past 1 a.m.," the statement said, adding that the exceeding noise levels are "unacceptable."
Ambrose said there's "a perception of lawlessness in some places of Newark" - and it's a problem.
"We have to handle quality of life and we have to handle violence because before you know it, the small things become big things if they're not addressed," he said. "And to be very, very candid with you, if you can't do it in the suburbs then why can they do it in Newark?"
NJ Advance Media reporter Karen Yi contributed to this report.
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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