The stretch of River Road between the Edgewater Marina and the old Hess tank farm is doing more work this fall than it has in years. A shuttered waterfront restaurant is being rebuilt by the team behind one of the Hudson's best-known dining rooms. A closed walkway segment is inching toward completion under an active state permit. And on a Sunday in early October, the whole thing turns into a racecourse.
Most Edgewater roundups treat the borough as a list of amenities. That misses what's actually happening this year. The waterfront is a single 1.5-mile corridor, and the calendar between now and Thanksgiving is stitching pieces of it shut that have been open, in one form or another, for a decade.
The corridor, south to north
Before the fall calendar makes sense, it helps to look at River Road as one continuous line rather than a set of destinations. Working from the Weehawken border up toward Fort Lee, the anchors most residents actually use in a given week:
- Edgewater Marina at 989 River Road, which doubles as the NY Waterway ferry terminal to Midtown and Lower Manhattan and the start line for the 10K on October 4.
- Veterans Field, the borough's primary athletic complex and the parking lot for anyone driving in for a race, bazaar, or Rec Department event.
- 115 River Road, the former Pier 115 space, now being rebuilt as Cov.
- Mitsuwa Marketplace at 595 River Road, the Japanese grocery anchor and a de facto lunch stop for anyone walking the southern half of the walkway.
- Edgewater Commons at 555 River Road, the Target and Acme block, which most residents already know is where the walkway abruptly ends and dumps you onto a sidewalk behind Trader Joe's.
- 615 River Road, the old Hess Oil tank farm, where a state-permitted ferry dock and a "fully compliant" section of walkway are actively under review.
- Haven Riverfront Restaurant and Bar, the borough's most-reserved dinner room, which sits on the northern shoulder of that same corridor.
If you live in a River Road high-rise, you already know most of those names. What you may not know is how much of the corridor is being physically changed at the same time.
Pier 115 becomes Cov
The most visible change is at 115 River Road, where Cov is preparing to open at 115 River Road in Edgewater, taking over the former Pier 115 property, from the team behind Blu on the Hudson. Blu on the Hudson is the Weehawken waterfront room a lot of Edgewater residents already end up at for anniversaries and group dinners.
The teaser matters less than the location. Pier 115 was one of the few Edgewater rooms where a table on the deck actually put you over the water rather than across a parking lot from it. With its expansive multi-level waterfront building, outdoor decks and unobstructed Manhattan views, the former Pier 115 site has long been one of Edgewater's most recognizable restaurant locations.
"From the team behind @bluonthehudson."
That is, more or less, the entire public marketing so far. An official opening date has not yet been announced. For residents, the practical question is when the deck reopens and whether the format stays skyline-and-cocktails or shifts toward the tasting-menu register Blu Hospitality has been building in Weehawken and Livingston. Either way, the borough gets a marquee waterfront room back after a long dark stretch.
October 4: the walkway becomes a racecourse
If you walk the dog on the Edgewater section of the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway on a normal Sunday morning, you should know what October 4 is going to look like. The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway 10K Race and 2K Run/Walk is on Sunday October 4, 2026. The route starts on your walkway.
The logistics matter for anyone who lives on the corridor and isn't running:
| Detail | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Start line | Edgewater Marina, 989 River Road |
| Parking | Free parking at Edgewater's Veteran's Field |
| Course | A fast and flat course along the scenic Hudson River Walkway with Manhattan skyline views |
| Finish | In Weehawken, with NY Waterways ferrying participants back to Edgewater for the ceremonies |
| New this year | A 2K Run/Walk added on race day |
Translation for residents: the southern half of the walkway will be closed to casual foot traffic for a chunk of Sunday morning, Veterans Field will be a runners' parking lot rather than a soccer field, and the ferry terminal will be moving race participants back from Weehawken through late morning. If you were planning a quiet Sunday coffee walk to Mitsuwa from a Colony or Admiral's Walk address, that day is not it. If you were looking for a tune-up race with a ferry ride at the end, it is a rare setup.
The gap the state is finally closing
The more interesting story is what happens after the runners leave. The Edgewater walkway is not, in fact, continuous. Anyone who has tried to walk from the marina up to Mitsuwa and beyond knows the path abruptly ends after Trader Joe's, requiring a diversion onto the main road sidewalk, then continues nicely behind the Mitsuwa marketplace. That break is not permanent by design. It exists because pieces of the shoreline are still privately owned parcels waiting on development.
The parcel most residents refer to as "the old Hess site" is where that changes. This is a multi-acre development property on the Hudson River, formerly a distribution terminal and tank farm for Hess Oil, located in the center of Edgewater between the Mitsuwa Shopping Center to the south and Edgewater Market to the north. As of this year, development plans including a segment of the walkway have been in place for several years, construction has begun and will take several years to complete, and the walkway segment will be built in the initial development phase of the property.
Layer on the state permit filing. According to the Hudson River Waterfront Conservancy's July 2026 update, the only NJDEP action relevant to the Conservancy was in Edgewater at 615 River Road, the previous Hess Oil tank farm, where a permit to build a ferry dock and a fully compliant section of the walkway was listed as Administratively Complete on March 31, 2026. In plain English, when completed, it will close one of the remaining gaps in the Edgewater walkway and provide additional ferry access to Manhattan from Edgewater, and infrastructure for the walkway segment is under construction based on a previous permit approval.
Two things follow from that. First, an Edgewater address in the center of the corridor is about to gain a second ferry option to Manhattan alongside the marina terminal. Second, the walkable stretch of River Road is about to grow. Neither happens overnight, but for residents who bought partly on the promise of a continuous Hudson-front path, this is the year the state process actually moved.
Further north, at Admiral's Walk, a similar story is finally advancing. Admiral's Walk now supports the construction of the Walkway segment, initial funds have been obtained from NJ to perform the necessary engineering for a new Walkway, and construction is expected to begin in 2026.
A fall Saturday, if you want a script
Enough analysis. Here is what a residents' Saturday looks like when you stitch the corridor together:
- Start with the walkway at the marina end. The Hudson River Waterfront Walkway runs continuously through Edgewater along River Road, with paved, flat, accessible paths, connecting on the south to Weehawken and on the north toward Fort Lee and Palisades Interstate Park, and it is open year-round at no charge.
- Detour into Mitsuwa around lunchtime. It is still the most efficient way to eat well without leaving the corridor.
- Loop the Edgewater Dog Park if you have one along, which is one of the few dedicated dog parks in the immediate River Road corridor and draws regular use from the borough's significant dog-owning resident population, providing a designated space for off-leash exercise as a practical daily amenity for residents in Edgewater's high-rise and mixed residential buildings who do not have private yards.
- Dinner at Haven, which Architectural Digest named one of the world's 16 most spectacular waterfront restaurants, sitting on the banks of the Hudson River in Edgewater. Reserve the terrace early if the weather holds; outdoor dining is a popular request, so reserve early if you want an outdoor table.
- When Cov's opening date is announced, swap it in for one of the above and see what the Blu Hospitality team does with the old Pier 115 deck.
The point is not that Edgewater has more to do this fall than it did last fall. It is that the corridor is measurably changing. A restaurant with a serious operator is filling one of the largest empty rooms on the river. The state's slowest walkway gap has an active permit clock. A race is going to close and reopen the path in a single Sunday. If you own here, those are the details worth watching, because they show up in listing photos and open-house conversations long before they show up in a market report.
If you are thinking about how those changes shape a specific building, address, or price band along River Road, the team at Vestra Home Collective tracks the corridor block by block. Let's connect.
