The windows at 1700 Harbor Boulevard are still there, still facing Manhattan across the Hudson, still catching the same light that made this one of Hudson County's go-to rooms for anniversaries and prom nights and first-date splurges for more than three decades. But the dining room behind them is empty now. Chart House, the national seafood chain that had occupied the Lincoln Harbor space since the early 1990s, closed for good on May 14, 2026. Google now lists it as permanently closed. The Mac Nut Mahi and the Slow-Roasted Prime Rib are gone with it.
This isn't the first restaurant to leave this stretch of water, and it won't be the last. The space that Chart House occupied for so long was itself a replacement for something else, and the building three doors down that now houses Drift sat vacant for five years after Houlihan's cleared out in 2019. Restaurants on this waterfront come and go with some regularity. What's different this time is what's going up a few blocks north, near the Port Imperial ferry terminal. It isn't another restaurant chasing the same skyline view. It's the first building on Weehawken's waterfront that the township itself will actually own.
The Room That Emptied Out
Chart House's exit didn't come as a total surprise. Rumors about the closure circulated for months before the doors actually shut, and the space had been a fixture of the Weehawken waterfront dining scene for decades, known for its panoramic Midtown views and its status as a "special occasion" destination. What comes next has already been named. Mastro's Steakhouse, owned by Landry's Inc. and founded in Scottsdale in 1999 by Dennis Mastro and his sons Jeff and Mike, will take over the 1700 Harbor Boulevard space as the brand's first New Jersey location. The company has set up a coming-soon page, but as of this September there's no firm opening date beyond a stated target of sometime in 2027. For now, the room sits empty, waiting on renovations before the next name goes on the door.
A Different Kind of Groundbreaking, Up the Shoreline
Near the ferry terminal, construction has been climbing for months on 300 Port Imperial Avenue, an 11-story mixed-use building known in planning documents as Port Imperial South Site 3. Developed by Canoe Brook Development and Roseland Properties and designed by Lessard Design, the building will eventually hold 313 market-rate apartments. But the piece that got its own groundbreaking ceremony in May 2026 wasn't the housing. It was a 23,000-square-foot performing arts center on the ground floor, facing the river, built at a cost of roughly $25 million.
The layout includes a 300-seat main theater and a smaller second venue that seats somewhere between 60 and 100. Once finished, the facility will become the permanent home of Hudson Theatre Works, a company whose artistic director, Frank Licato, has described operating out of four different spaces over the years because suitable venues in Hudson County have been hard to come by. Their most recent home, the old Wilson building, is being returned to use as a school, which made the timing of this new space matter more than a typical ribbon-cutting would suggest.
The idea itself is old. Community advocate Bruce Sherman founded the nonprofit Hudson River Performing Arts Center, Inc. around 2000, specifically to push for a permanent performing arts venue on this waterfront. Mayor Richard Turner has said the early proposals for a standalone building were priced out of reach, and that it took a public-private partnership with Roseland Properties, worked out over roughly two decades, to finally land on a site and a developer willing to build it in. Construction is expected to run 18 to 20 months from the May groundbreaking, which puts a realistic completion somewhere in late 2027 or early 2028. When it's done, the township retains naming rights and will furnish the interior, while the developer handles the build itself. The building will then be deeded to Weehawken Township.
What Comes and Goes, and What Doesn't
| The waterfront's usual pattern | The one piece breaking it |
|---|---|
| Houlihan's closes (2019), sits vacant five years, reopens as Drift with a rotating dining platform (Nov. 2024) | 300 Port Imperial Ave: performing arts center, ground floor |
| Chart House closes (May 2026), reopens as Mastro's Steakhouse (targeting 2027) | Owned by Weehawken Township upon completion |
| Blu on the Hudson, NoHu Rooftop, Molos, Faubourg at RiverHouse 11 all opened as private hospitality concepts in recent years | Permanent home for Hudson Theatre Works, a nonprofit company |
| Each is leased space, subject to renewal, sale, or rebrand | Not for lease. Not for sale. Deeded to the town. |
Every name in that left column represents a business decision made by a hospitality group chasing the same view and the same waterfront foot traffic. That's a normal, healthy pattern for a commercial strip, and it's produced a genuinely strong run of restaurants along this shoreline. But none of it was ever going to be permanent in the way a municipally owned building is permanent. A restaurant lease ends. A township deed doesn't.
Why the Distinction Matters If You Live Here
For years, the answer to "what's new on the Weehawken waterfront" has almost always been a restaurant name. That's still true this month, with Mastro's filling in behind Chart House. But starting sometime around 2027 or 2028, the answer will also include a 300-seat theater that isn't tied to a check average or a reservation window. The Hudson River Performing Arts Center nonprofit isn't new to this waterfront either. It's been running Summer Concerts on the Hudson at Lincoln Harbor Park since 2004, an outdoor series that continues regardless of what's happening with the indoor building project. What changes once 300 Port Imperial Avenue opens is that the same organization finally gets a year-round, indoor home instead of a folding-chair season that depends on the weather.
That's a different kind of civic footprint than a new raw bar or another rooftop happy hour, and it's the first time this particular waterfront has gotten one.
If You Want Dinner on the Water Tonight
None of this changes what's actually open right now. Blu on the Hudson still runs its 16,000-square-foot dining room with floor-to-ceiling Manhattan views, a weekend DJ, and a happy hour that runs Monday through Friday. Drift, in Lincoln Harbor, still turns its dining platform a full rotation every hour, with a menu built around small plates, a raw bar, and line-caught fish. NoHu Rooftop Bar, at the EnVue hotel, still runs its Sunday Latin Jazz Brunch and has shown up on more than one ranking of the region's best rooftop bars. Molos still serves Greek-inspired seafood with floor-to-ceiling skyline views of its own, and Faubourg at RiverHouse 11, the second location of the French brasserie that built its name in Montclair starting in 2019, is still a block off the water serving modern brasserie fare.
The Chart House space will stay dark until Mastro's finishes its buildout sometime in 2027. Up the shoreline, concrete keeps getting poured on a building the town will actually own once the ferry horn sounds on its opening night.
If you're watching how this waterfront keeps reshaping itself and want a read on what any of it means for property values or timing, TKRE Group knows this stretch of the Hudson block by block. Schedule a free consultation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
