The Cliffside Park Library Board of Trustees described the new storefront location at 742 Anderson Avenue as "thoughtfully designed to provide the most popular services, materials, and resources" residents rely on. In the same letter, the board also called it a smaller version of the library at 505 Palisade Avenue. Both descriptions are accurate. The building that will replace 505 Palisade explains why the borough chose a few years of smaller quarters.
The library now closed at 505 Palisade was a 9,000-square-foot brick building on the corner of Palisade Avenue and Edgewater Road. Under the borough's design-build solicitation, the library alone in the replacement covers 20,864 square feet, about 2.3 times the old building. A 19,637-square-foot recreation center sits above it. Everything at Anderson Avenue is built to carry the library through until that building opens.
What 742 Anderson Avenue handles today
According to Citizen Portal's account of the library staff announcement, staff said services and many programs will continue at the annex "for the next few years." The practical details, current as of the library's own pages:
- Hours: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The library notes Sunday hours are subject to change.
- Returns: The book drop at 505 Palisade Avenue is no longer in service. Items go back to 742 Anderson during open hours, or to a book drop at any BCCLS library after hours.
- Equipment: Citizen Portal reported that the satellite offers public computers, scanning to email or USB, faxing, printing and privacy pods.
- Programs: Children's, adult, ESL and citizenship programming was set to resume at the satellite in September, in a program room that holds about 25 to 26 people, according to Citizen Portal.
- Museum passes: Still offered, but the museum pass page says online reservations are unavailable, so call ahead to check whether a pass is free.
A Cliffside Park card also opens the full Bergen County Cooperative Library System. The trustees' letter points cardholders to the BCCLS network to borrow materials and visit any participating library while the main branch is gone. That network does real work during the rebuild. A collection limited by the size of a storefront can still reach far beyond the borough.
Two November Saturdays on the calendar
The library's November calendar lists two classes back to back on Saturday, November 14, and again on Saturday, November 21.
| Program | Dates | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mat Yoga with Cui Wang | November 14 and 21 | 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. |
| Chair Yoga | November 14 and 21 | 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. |
The listings say "In Person" and name a conference room but give no street address, so check the event page or call (201) 945-2867 before you head out. With a program room sized for about two dozen people, signing up early for anything popular makes sense until 2028.
Three parcels, one building, three front doors
The construction site covers more than the old library's corner. It takes in three borough-owned parcels bounded by Palisade Avenue on the east, Edgewater Road on the south, Lindberg Avenue on the west and the Municipal Complex on the north. The parcels are the library building, a two-story brick building on Edgewater Road that formerly housed the Jewish Community Center, and an asphalt lot at Edgewater and Lindberg where a house and detached garage once stood. Both brick buildings are slated for demolition.
The ground drops steeply across that block, and the design uses the slope. The specification calls for a three-level building with street-grade access to every level, so each floor effectively has its own front door on a different street:
- Level one, from Palisade Avenue. The library's first floor, reached by an elevated pedestrian plaza. It holds the children's section with its own stacks, study area, computer area, reading lounge and circulation desk, plus a 600-square-foot program room and a 1,000-square-foot meeting room. A nine-space parking level here is entered through the Municipal Complex lot off Palisade.
- Level two, from Edgewater Road. The library's second floor, with adult and young adult sections, a Local History Area with exhibition space, a 525-square-foot quiet reading room, a 350-square-foot gaming and activity room, a 900-square-foot meeting room and five study rooms. A 36-space parking level opens onto Edgewater Road.
- Level three, from Lindberg Avenue. The recreation center, with a 6,500-square-foot gymnasium, a 2,000-square-foot fitness center, activity rooms of 2,000 and 900 square feet, and a Recreation Director's office. A 3,165-square-foot outdoor gathering and event space sits on the library's roof, reached from the recreation center's main hallway.
The two parking levels hold 45 spaces in total and are separate garages, each with its own entrance and no ramp between them. One elevator and three internal staircases tie the building together. In practice, a driver headed for the Edgewater Road garage can't drive down to the Palisade level from inside. Which entrance you use depends on which floor you want.
Compare the new building with the satellite's 25-person room. On paper, the new library alone has a program room and two meeting rooms totaling 2,500 square feet, plus five study rooms, before you count anything in the recreation center.
Where recreation fits while it waits
Today the Recreation Center office sits next to the School #6 Athletic Field Complex on Oakdene Avenue. Indoor seasons run through school buildings. On the borough's sports page, winter sports run from mid-November to mid-March. Wrestling is open to Cliffside Park and Fairview students in grades 1 through 8 and practices in the High School Wrestling Room. Junior and Senior division basketball starts practice in December and plays at School #6 from January, and Pee-Wee basketball starts in January at Schools #3 and #4.
That spread across several school sites is the setting for the new building's third floor. A dedicated 6,500-square-foot gym, a fitness center and a director's office would give the department its own space for the first time. The borough has not published how programs will be divided between the new gym and the schools once it opens.
Who is building it, and the 2028 date
The Borough Council adopted Resolution 2026-153 on June 18, 2026, accepting its Technical Review Committee's recommendation and authorizing a design-build contract with Terminal Construction Corporation. The committee reviewed four proposals and ranked Terminal first on combined technical and price scoring. Terminal's price proposal was $32.4 million. Citizen Portal's summary of the vote recorded six votes in favor.
A borough video posted in August shows Mayor Thomas Calabrese signing the contract. Terminal President Donald Dinallo describes the company as both contractor and designer, and Al Mauro Jr. of M&M Construction Management is identified as construction manager. The 2025 preliminary design and renderings came from Arcari & Iovino Architects. The committee's evaluation report lists the firm's Anthony Iovino as the bridging architect. According to the borough's bid notice, demolition of the old library is funded from borough capital funds. For the building itself, a borough announcement put grants for the complex at $18 million, and the contract-signing video credited state legislators with more than $20 million in grants.
The solicitation requires substantial completion, at minimum a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy, by May 1, 2028. Its schedule assumed an award around April 15, 2026 and a notice to proceed on June 1, 2026. The award actually came on June 18, and the borough's video of the signing went up in August. May 2028 is best read as the target in the contract documents. A firm opening date will come from the borough as work moves from demolition to construction. Until then, the library is at 742 Anderson Avenue, and after-hours returns go to any BCCLS book drop.
Big public projects like this one shape how a neighborhood functions for years after they open, and the Tony Nabhan Collective follows them block by block across Bergen County. If you own near Palisade Avenue or Edgewater Road and want to know how the coming campus fits into your home's story, request your free home valuation from Tony Nabhan and we will walk you through it.
