Jersey City Rising

[dbhstockton]

I was just in the Wintergarden and I noticed how bad-ass Jersey City is starting to look. *Just a couple more *serious commercial skyscrapers and it would have a skyline that could rival most in the US, or North America for that matter (except for Chicago and NY, of course).

I know there's an old post about the status of projects in JC. *Would anyone like to revive it here? *I'd really like to know.

Here's one good site, to begin with: http://www.jcedc.org/

[Jude1017]

Hey. I was in New York last night, and I nocited how Jersey City's Skyline is really growing. *Growing up there, even before the Newport Tower was built really makes me amazed at how much this skyline has transformed. *I am dissapointed at reports that they have scaled down the height of the Goldman Sachs Tower. *Orignally it was planned to be 876 ft. *Now some are saying it is topped out around 791 ft. *This is BULL. *We need more taller buildings in Jersey City. *Does anybody know of anymore buildings planned for Jersey City??

[billyblancoNYC]

Hopefully not. *JC building symbolizes Jersey continually leeching from NYC. *It's been going on for years and it makes me sick. *I guess there's nothing much to do. *Hopefully the city finally wakes up and makes Bkln, LIC and elsewhere in the 4 "other" boroughs more attractive. *We'll see.

[dbhstockton]

1. *It makes sense to have a financial center on Jersey's side of the Hudson. *It is essential for the regional economy. *Like it or not, there's a large pool of wealthy financial services workers for whom JC is a much easier commute. *This cannot be ignored. *Even the planned transit improvements at the new WTC will only do so much, and they're years off (no NJ Transit, for one thing). *We need to keep these workers in the region. *They're human beings. *They will get fed up and take their tax dollars to Charlotte.

2. *This is America. *Competition is the foundation of our economy. *A thriving New Jersey waterfront with lower taxes forces NYC to get its act together and *ante-up. *This is a good thing for the region. *

3. *JC symbolizes that traditional "leeching" relationship you refer to being reversed. *The jobs are in Jersey now. *Some are even living in Manhattan and commuting to Jersey.

4. *Brooklyn and LIC have the disadvantage that they're on Long Island and therefore people have to get through NYC to get to them. *I'd like New Yorkers to stop thinking of the other side of the Hudson river as New Jersey and start thinking of it as the rest of the continent. *The river can be a formidable economic barrier. *NYC needs a good relationship with NJ for that reason. *New Jersey has the highest per-capita income in the nation and is the most densely-populated state in the union. *It cannot be ignored or belittled.

5. Yes, I'm from New Jersey.

(Edited by dbhstockton at 4:25 pm on Jan. 8, 2003)


(Edited by dbhstockton at 4:27 pm on Jan. 8, 2003)

[TLOZ Link5]

A competetive NJ would be really good for the economy overall. *New York will be forced to, as Stockton said, ante-up to stay on the ball. *It's not like having some jobs in the suburbs is a bad thing; the *Chicago metropolitan has 60% of its commercial jobs in the suburbs, and it's still going strong.

Jersey City's CBD, however, lacks many of the amenities that Midtown, or even Downtown for that matter, already provide. *From what I hear there aren't as many restaurants or stores, and very little housing. *(I got this from the Post, BTW so don't flame me or anything if I'm dead wrong.)

Maybe Newark will get some newer, taller skyscrapers, also. *The Midatlantic-National building has been the tallest for over 70 years, and it's only 465 feet tall!

[Jude1017]

Maybe Newark doesn't have any new taller buildings because of Newark Airport. *(Which officially is in Elizabeth, NJ) *Jersey City has some new restaraunts along the river. *They now have a "Pizzaria Uno" right under the Harborside Financial building. *Plus, they have many new sushi places (too meet the needs of the yuppies.) *Newport Mall is there. *There are lots of stores. *The new housing is going up right behind the Goldman Sachs building, and the new Marbella apartments, which I believe is 40 floors. *I love Jersey City, but it will take a long time before it ever reaches the "skyline map"

[amigo32]

More power to JC. If NYC's mayor does not want to capitulate, somebody has to fill in the voids. *Bloomberg said something yesterday about making NY a "first-class product", well *he better GET ON *IT, it seems that he dosen't want to spend money or make concessions to keep business firms around. *This is amazing to me! *Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Maybe he is playing hardball, but can he afford to?

[NYatKNIGHT]

Jersey City, like Brooklyn, has grown with New York from the very beginning as part of the regional powerhouse. You can't ignore its significance in helping to keep New York as America's premier city. They know their place, they aren't trying to take down New York, but it would be stupid if New Jersey didn't capitalize on the businesses that choose to leave New York. Thank goodness it's right there, right across the river.

This hatred for anything and everything about New Jersey is not only unfounded, but it alienates almost half the people in our own metro area who in the end are on our team. We need them and they need us. You may not know this by reading these skyscraper boards, but take it from someone who has lived in other parts of the country; New York City as well as New Jersey both have generally terrible reputations. It does us no good to promote that.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/30hudson/images/30hudson_liberty_state_park_28sept02_s.jpg

[billyblancoNYC]

Everybody's entitled to their opinion. *All I know is Jersey is continually trying to use tax breaks and it's dirt cheap, worthless land to take things from NY. *They even tried to lure the NYSE! I'm not saying it's smart for them to do it, but as a die-hard NYer it irks me - plain and simple.

Yeah, they are a fairly wealthy state, so is CT. *Why? *B/c of NYC. *NJ is one big suburb - North to NYC and South to Philly. *So sure, NJ is densely populated - it's not a huge state and it's in a prime position between 2 real cities.

True, it is better to be there than in Oklahoma, or somewhere like that, but would as many people be in NJ if they weren't pushing so hard to take from NY?

It also says something about American companies - maufacturing goes to China, etc and why do we need to have an office in a prime location? It's all about EPS, baby! *NYC is 7th in the world for office cost, much less than 1/2 that of London, yet businesses still seem to run to London, Paris, etc. *I dunno, maybe it's just me.

C'mon Jersey lovers, tell me that I'm wrong and ignorant!!!

[NYatKNIGHT]

I think you just proved it.

[billyblancoNYC]

I preoved what? *That people from Jersey love it so much that they actually consider it an extention on NY. *

[TAFisher123]

Why shouldnt new jersey lure companies (or leech) from nyc city, it called competition, get over it...there nothing illegal, stop crying....NYC downtown has offered business tons a tax breaks and perks

[TLOZ Link5]

Quote: from Jude1017 on 8:55 pm on Jan. 8, 2003
Maybe Newark doesn't have any new taller buildings because of Newark Airport. *(Which officially is in Elizabeth, NJ) *Jersey City has some new restaraunts along the river. *They now have a "Pizzaria Uno" right under the Harborside Financial building. *Plus, they have many new sushi places (too meet the needs of the yuppies.) *Newport Mall is there. *There are lots of stores. *The new housing is going up right behind the Goldman Sachs building, and the new Marbella apartments, which I believe is 40 floors. *I love Jersey City, but it will take a long time before it ever reaches the "skyline map"


Impressive. *And I mean that, as well. *But JC will still have a ways to go.

Isn't there also a 900-footer right across the Hudson from BPC, that's been on-hold for a while? *I heard about that in Skyscrapers.com, but I'm not completely sure about it; could you clarify this?

Heh, maybe JC can be a twin city to New York in a decade or so? *New York will still be the more prominent twin, but it would be an interesting concept.

[billyblancoNYC]

As I said previously, I'm not saying that they SHOULDN'T leech, but as a NYer I said that I'm not a big fan of it.

Why are all you Jersey lovers so touchy? *You have a wonderful state, full of great things and great people.

[JeffreyNYC]

I had to laugh when reading some of these posts. As someone who basically has lived many years in NYC. as well as many other parts of the world, I see NY/NJ as the same metro area. I can't believe there is all this discussion and distinction because of a river dividing 2 land masses!
As I see it, I love JC and am glad to see things being spread out over Jersey (and I don't mean urban sprawl) as well as LIC, Brooklyn and wherever else in the NYC. metro. We all depend on eachother. JC downtown could pratically be another borough of NYC. it's as urban as anypart of the outer boroughs as well as just as nice!
The rivers are dividing *lines between areas but this idea to fight over it and see things as "so different" on the other side just seems so provincial to me!
The Goldman Sachs building is beautiful! Let's be happy it's been built on "our" metro area!

[dbhstockton]

Thank you Jeffrey! *Well said.

Billy, maybe reading this thread closely will help you understand why us Jersey folks are touchy about this subject ("Jersey lover" is pushing it a bit. *I just live here and think New Yorkers owe more respect to the Garden State). *We don't like to be seen as only detracting from your glorious city, and we see your attitude as bigotted. * It's not all quiet bedroom commuties out here. *We contribute to the regional economy as well. *Where would NYC be without NJ's modern port facilities, refineries, manufacturing, transortation network, etc? * *Moreover, suburbs are suburbs. *If you want to avoid offending us, don't say anything about New Jersey that you wouldn't also say about Westchester, Nassau, or Suffolk counties.

[amigo32]

Interesting rivalries, but they are not unique to NY. *KC has similar competitiveness between the two halves of its metro. *The wealthy side (Kansas) has "leeched" jobs and business from the poorer side (Missouri) for decades which irritates some on the MO. side, (prosperity envy) while The MO. side has more national notoriety, which irritates some on the KS. side. Also, they have been trying to pass a bi-state tax for a few years now to upgrade the stadiums, (which are on the MO. side), and the Kansas half always votes it down. *The most oft given reason for voting no is that they don't want to pay taxes for Missouri property.
Sounds like squabbling children, dosen't it?

[billyblancoNYC]

Intersting about the KC situation. *

As far as NY/NJ it's a matter of hometown pride, really. *Everyone, I think, knows NY is a metro area for various reasons. *But, there's nothing wrong with loving your hometown and wanting everything in it/for it. *You know what I mean?

Any rivalry steeped in reality and understanding can't be bad - both sides would step up.

As far as Nj being the same as Westchester and LI, this might be true, but NJ is another state with more of a "winner take all" mentality (ie. take breaks, etc), so there is more of a competition between NJ and NY that NYC and NY suburbs.

[amigo32]

Well, I wasn't trying to "intrude" on NY. *I saw striking similarities in how the communities interact with each other, and I thought that it was worth mentioning as a comparison point. *All metro areas have their "hometown pride", this is why they fight with each other. *I guess I was trying to make the point that all of this inter-metro bickering is really pretty silly, when you look at it. *Generally, whatever benefits one part of a metro area will eventually translate to the rest of the metro area over time. *As long as the area is interconnected it is part of a *"whole"! *Fragmenting that whole is just plain stupid. *"United we stand, divided we fall". *I guess that I just don't understand your exclusionary attitude towards JC. *Please! Correct me if I am misinterpreting your posistion.

(Edited by amigo32 at 4:36 am on Jan. 11, 2003)

[yanni111]

i like the development in JC, its nice to look across the river and see basically another entire skyline there, it makes the whole region more impressive by having even more skyscrapers outside of manhattan. The Goldman Sachs building was really shining and pretty in the sunlight a couple days ago when i saw JC from West st. Does JC development take away from NYC? yes it takes away possible projects but even with stuff going up there in the last few years look at all the new projects going of in NYC, there have been tons of new projects in manhattan and theres many rising now theres more than enough to pass around

[Agglomeration]

Hey don't forget competition from Stamford CT. They have plenty of big corporate buildings going up. The only restraint is a height limit of 360 feet or so. Like Jersey City though, it doesn't have much else in the form of amenities.

[JCDJ]

"I love Jersey City, but it will take a long time before it ever reaches the "skyline map"
- Jude 1017

Jersey City's first major modern office buildings began to rise in the 70's and late 80's. In a best skyline (in the world) poll in 2000[http://www.library.tudelft.nl/~egram/skylines_old.htm] , we (Jersey City) were ranked # 80 something. 2 years later in 2002 [http://www.library.tudelft.nl/~egram/skylines.htm] , we rose to #69. We rose almost 20 ranks in 2 years, and we've only had a skyline since the 70's.

(In case your wondering YES, New York City was #1 by large number of votes.)

Also, 3 of our buildings were nominated for the skyscraper.com award. (Plaza 5 Harborside, and Liverty View Towers East and West)

(Edited by JCDJ at 10:08 pm on Jan. 23, 2003)


(Edited by JCDJ at 12:44 am on Jan. 24, 2003)

[JCDJ]

The difference between CT and New Jersey though, is that New Jersey is much closer, so relocation isn't as much of a hassle.

As for LEECHING issues, I have quite a few things to say about that.

For one thing, I don't find anything wrong with the competition between NY and NJ, (including, but not limited to, architecture, construction, revenue, home pride arguements) healthy competition means healthy growth.

It is impossible to say with any logic that New Jersey is leeching off of New York. For one thing, Jersey City only tries to lour buisinesses planning on relocating.

- Where does new york get it's industrial supplies?
- Where do a significant percentage of NY workers come from?
- What STATE connects New York to the rest of the continent?
- And finally the part that any New Jersey native with any type of Jersey pride hates, where does New York send all of its garbage? (Hopefully after the TV Tower, this garbage agreement can be cancelled due to heightened revenue)

So if you think that New York got where it is by itself, remember all of the ways New Jersey has helped it. And now, we're helping New Yorkers be able to work and/or live in a place where they're not overburdened by excessive taxes. If anything, these new buildings we have are well-deserved after all that we've done for New York

and if you refuse to accept that, think about this, what land mass do you think Manhattan and Long Island drifted from soon after the Pangea days? New York? I think not.

[dbhstockton]

I'm with you, but you crossed the line with the geological reference there. *Manhattan sort came up from underground, rather than drifting into place -- I believe it's made of igneous rock. *And Long Island is only, what, 10,00 years old. *It's glacial till deposited after the last ice age. *

Sorry, had to be done. *Anyone else with Geology 101 under their belt feel free to correct me.

[JCDJ]

Either way, by common sense, New York City dare I say it, SHOULD technically be considered part of NJ due to it's lack of proximity from New York State in comparison.

[JCDJ]

An excerpt from

"New York vs. New Jersey:
A New Perspective"

http://www.mitchellmoss.com/articles/nynj.html

"Still, probably no regional issue has received more attention than the often-repeated charge that New Jersey is stealing jobs from New York City. This charge has little basis in reality. When New York City lost more than half a million jobs from 1969 to 1977, most of these jobs, which included manufacturing as well as headquarters jobs, did not flow to New Jersey. The apparel industry went to the non-union South or to low-wage nations in Asia, and New York City's large commercial banks built data processing and clerical facilities on Long Island. Of the corporate headquarters that left Manhattan between 1974 and 1987, eleven went to New Jersey but twenty-one moved to Connecticut.(3) Ironically, when New York City's problems were at their worst, no one blamed Connecticut, Long Island, or the Third World as the source of the city's problems.

In the post-fiscal crisis period, approximately 400,000 new jobs were created in New York City, fueled largely by business and consumer services. During this economic resurgence, New Jersey also prospered. However, New Jersey's economic boom has not been at the expense of New York. A study by George Sternlieb and Alex Schwartz of Rutgers University revealed that 80 percent of the firms that had moved facilities into New Jersey's "growth corridors" had relocated from elsewhere in the state. (4) Of course, these are statewide figures and for the nearby Meadowlands, located just six miles from Manhattan, one-third of the firms surveyed had emigrated from New York. This, however, does not diminish the importance of recognizing that New Jersey's economic success has largely been due to the growth of indigenous firms.

The author would like to thank Sarah Ludwig, Dick, Netzer asnd Emanuel Tobier for their helpful comments. This paper was made possible in part by finds granted by the Charles H. Reverson Foundation. The Statements make and views expressed, however, are solely those of the author.

1. Erwin Wilkie Bard, Port of New York Authority. New York: Columbia University Press, London: P.S. King & Staples, Ltd. 1942, p.16.

2. Cited in Bard, p.23.

3. Regina R. Armstrong and David Miller, "Employment in the Manhattan CBD and Back-Office Locational Decisions," City Almanac, Vol. 18, No. 1-2, June/August, 1984: The Economist. May 9, 1987.

4. George Sternlieb and Alex Schwartz, New Jersey Growth Corridors, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University, 1986.

5. Kate Ascher. "Down to the Sea Again: The Resurgence of the Trans-Hudson Ferry," Portfolio. Spring, 1988, Vol. 1., No. 1.



Originally published in Portfolio, Summer 1988
Volume 1, Number 2
The Port Authority of NY and NJ. 1988


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(C) 1999 Mitchell Moss"

http://www.mitchellmoss.com/articles/nynj.html

(Edited by JCDJ at 1:35 am on Jan. 24, 2003)


(Edited by JCDJ at 1:36 am on Jan. 24, 2003)

[Kris]

Quote: from JCDJ on 11:51 pm on Jan. 23, 2003
Either way, by common sense, New York City dare I say it, SHOULD technically be considered part of NJ due to it's lack of proximity from New York State in comparison.

What nonsense. If anything, northern NJ is a mainland appendix of NYC. Now quit deluding yourself.

[Kris]

Westchester and LI are not farther than NJ.

[ZippyTheChimp]

dbhstockton is right. You were doing ok until the geological references. There is evidence that the ancient Hudson ran in a channel west of the Palisades, then turned eastward at Raritan Bay. That would put JC, Bayonne, Hoboken, etc on "our side" of the river.

Dammit, we want our land back.

[dbhstockton]

In fact, the Meadowlands was a sea until relatively recently on a geologic time scale. *All the more reason for that ridge of JC, Weehawken, etc. to be part of New York. *It would have been part of the archepelago that included Manhattan and Staten Islands.

Oh, and let's not forgot the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which included parts of northern New Jersey before the British took over and set up the proprietary colonies of East and West Jersey. *Maybe they should have kept the old boundares. . .

[NYatKNIGHT]

That's right, New Netherlands extended from the Connecticut River to the Delaware River so today's NY, NJ, and western Conn. and Mass. were the same Dutch colony. When the British took over NJ was granted as gifts to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. That simple gesture had huge repercussions.

It doesn't make much sense today why New York City is is so narrowly attached to New York State, but historically it was all about the Hudson River. There are plenty of Upstaters who want to split away from NYC, LI, and Westchester. If that happened, I think the southern NY state would be even better if it annexed New Jersey! That way we wouldn't have to change the flag.

"Westchester and LI are not farther than NJ."
Of course not, they touch NYC without a river between. However, NJ is closer to Manhattan than are Westchester and LI.

[Kris]

"That way we wouldn't have to change the flag." I don't understand this remark. Because of critical mass?

NYC became tied to upstate with the Erie canal.

[JCDJ]

"What nonsense. If anything, northern NJ is a mainland appendix of NYC. Now quit deluding yourself." - Christian Wieland


Yeah, that makes sense, a small island ruling a large land mass more than 5 times larger than it. Take a look at a map.

Either way it doesn't make a difference, the point was that New York and New Jersey are interdependant and any benefits New Jersey gets from New York is well deserved after centuries of supplying workers and industries.

Are there any geologists in the house?

[Kris]

Who cares about land area? Look at the power relation, dummy.

[Kris]

NYC is comprised of five boroughs, not just the island of Manhattan. Take a look at a map.

[NYatKNIGHT]

If New York divides in two, there would be 51 states, but if one of them were to annex New Jersey there would still be 50 states and the American flag wouldn't have to change (and wreck the perfect symmetry of the star pattern). ;)

NYC became tied to upstate in the early 1600s with the fur trade. Albany was the inland trading post, New Amsterdam was the coastal port. They were closely linked by business, culture, and government from the very beginning. The Hudson River was the connection. Construction of the Erie Canal didn't begin for another two hundred years, and yes, strengthened the tie.

[Kris]

I thought you meant the NY State flag. I doubt Downstate could annex more than northern NJ.

The history is interesting. I don't think the state should split because Upstate has become a burden and thinks Downstate is (how dishonest and absurd, by the way). It might rebound and has nice natural escapes from the city.

(Edited by Christian Wieland at 1:05 pm on Jan. 24, 2003)

[Eugenius]

Population-wise, New York City and New Jersey are roughly equal, both being around 8 million. *So the question of annexation is kind of mute - it would probably be a "merger of equals."

[Kris]

I don't see how southern NJ is tied to the city.


(Edited by Christian Wieland at 2:27 pm on Jan. 24, 2003)

[NYatKNIGHT]

Let Pennsylvania have South Jersey, they always wanted a shoreline. On second thought, screw them, we'll take the length of the shore. Give them Camden County.

[Agglomeration]

If it came to that, if the 5 boroughs broke away from upstate, we could also invite Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, and Duchess in New York, and Fairfield, Litchfield, and New Haven counties in Connecticut, plus Hudson, Essex, Union, Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, Morris, Warren, Hunterdon, Mercer, Somerset, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Ocean counties in New Jersey into the fold. The result could be a 31-county new state bigger than any state except California, highly centralized, opposed to sprawl, culturally diverse, and economically vibrant, with a population exceeding 21 million. All the counties listed here, plus the five boroughs, essentially make up New York Metro. *

[dbhstockton]

A lot of Armchair Napoleons here, plotting NYC's imperial expansion...

[Ptarmigan]

Jersey City skyline is impressive for a city it size. Its skyline will make it more interesting for sure with New York's skyline. Still, I think New York will have more amneities then Jersey City. New York and New Jersey will always have to help each other ecomically, when times are good and bad.

[Kris]

The suburban counties would never join. They are content to be to a certain extent independent from the city and sprawl. They would never accept to be politically ruled by it.

[JCDJ]

"Who cares about land area? Look at the power relation, dummy.
NYC is comprised of five boroughs, not just the island of Manhattan. Take a look at a map."

- Christian Wieland

Whether you're talking about Manhattan or all of the other borughs, or even Logn Island with it, they still pale in comparison to the size of New Jersey.

As for power relation, where would New York be without all of the services New Jersey offers? Also, do you really think one city has more power than a whole state? That was the point I was trying to make, that NYC depends on the workers and industries of New Jersey, but you apparantly want to make the discussion out of any lirrelevant mistake that I make in my posts.

As for calling me a "dummy", what are you, 6?

[Kris]

One can insult (which you have just done - thereby contradicting yourself) at all ages when appropriate. And you can be as delusional as you want about the great state of New Jersey, you're only fooling yourself. If NJ didn't exist, NYC would import workers and services from other places as it does anyway. There is nothing unique about NJ to depend upon. It also isn't as powerful as NYC (not just any city) and would be so much less without it. Once more, they are not equals. Get over it.

[JCDJ]

My intent wasn't to convince arrogant close-minded people of anything, I'm just trying to inform open-minded, people who aren't self-centered of the importance of their neighbors. And shine some light on a place which is often forgotton and even insulted despite its greatness and importance to NYC.

If you really want to be this plainly blind and think that New Jersey's proximity, workers, and transportation, has nothing to do with New York's success, then go ahead and think that.

[Kris]

Don't be a baby. NJ was getting its due respect in this thread and on this forum until you came and said, "New York City dare I say it, SHOULD technically be considered part of NJ". It still gets the respect it deserves, just not beyond its actual status. NYC owes to NJ due to their proximity and the fact that no city is autonomous. That's about it.

(Edited by Christian Wieland at 4:44 pm on Jan. 25, 2003)

[JCDJ]

I'm not talking about on this board, I'm talking about in general, I KNOW that most of the people on this board aren't arrogant, those are the people I was talking to. I'm not the one trying to turn this into some kind arguement.

[TLOZ Link5]

Jersey City's first major modern office buildings began to rise in the 70's and late 80's. In a best skyline (in the world) poll in 2000[http://www.library.tudelft.nl/~egram/skylines_old.htm] , we (Jersey City) were ranked # 80 something. 2 years later in 2002 [http://www.library.tudelft.nl/~egram/skylines.htm] , we rose to #69. We rose almost 20 ranks in 2 years, and we've only had a skyline since the 70's.

(In case your wondering YES, New York City was #1 by large number of votes.)

Hong Kong, second; Chicago, third; Tokyo, fourth; Shanghai, fifth...

Heh, Pyongyang (?) ranks 75th. *It wasn't even on the list last poll. *Aside from the Ryugyong, the Juche Tower, perhaps the Koryo Hotel and the TV mast, there aren't many distinguishing characteristics of its skyline—or lack therof.

Caracas should have been higher; it's only at 78th.

Riyadh (90th) definitely should have been higher. *Taipei (54) should have been a bit lower.

And why, pray tell, was Fort Worth even on the list?

[JCDJ]

I went to the Mack- Cali website, and they have some rough CG representations of upcoming Harborside Financial Center Buildings.

http://www.mack-cali.com/development/development_projects/harborside.phtml

And in the city polls, How do you vote for cities?

[JCMAN320]

why are people trashing my city im 16 and i love it here and lived here all my life an im heavily into the redevelopment of the city. Jersey City deserves every right to build. Were trying to come into our own as a major city. i dont understand why people cant accept that. jersey city has played a major role in the history of this area and the economic success. we just want to be a succesful city

(Edited by JCMAN320 at 10:19 pm on May 13, 2003)

[TLOZ Link5]

No one's trashing Jersey City, JCMAN. *A lot of us like it a lot; it's just that some of us New Yorkers like to make fun of NJ in general ;)

[JCMAN320]

I understand. Thanks tloz for responding, some of my friends live in brooklyn and one friend on the upper westside and staten island. They wale on me every time I see them beacause Im from Jersey:)
(Edited by JCMAN320 at 9:13 pm on May 14, 2003)


(Edited by JCMAN320 at 9:19 pm on May 14, 2003)


(Edited by JCMAN320 at 9:19 pm on May 14, 2003)

[Kris]

http://meccapixel.com/images/large/0306/03062405.jpg

[TLOZ Link5]

An 800-foot, 59-story tower is in the pipeline for the Harborside Financial Project and has since been approved, according to ss.com.

And a 637-foot, 37-story office tower is proposed for 90 Hudson Street.

There's also something here about a 900-foot, 52-story office tower on the waterfront that's been on-hold for as long as I can remember. *"American Financial Exchange Tower?"

Finally, there's HarborSpire, a two-tower residential project with a 55-story building and a 50-story one.

[NYatKNIGHT]

I was actually doing some work in Jersey City yesterdayand got a first hand look at the huge amount of new residential and office buildings under construction.

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/119_1910_IMG.sized.jpg


The Hudson-Bergen light rail on Essex Street. *

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/NYatKNIGHT/119_1922_IMG.sized.jpg

[Kris]

The light rail system is a nice development that benefits the whole metro area. One more, a little up the river:

http://meccapixel.com/images/large/0306/03062501.jpg

(Edited by Christian Wieland at 5:48 pm on June 25, 2003)

[JCMAN320]

Hotel, apartment building to rise east of Grove St. PATH

Friday, June 27, 2003

By Maria Zingaro Conte
Journal correspondent

The area around the Grove Street PATH station is one step closer to a major change with the Jersey City Planning Board's approval of a preliminary site plan for a new 34-story hotel and apartment building.

Located just opposite the PATH at Newark Avenue and Marin Boulevard, the building is to include a 170-room hotel, 18,000 square feet of retail space, 525 apartments and a 577-car parking garage.

The City Council gave its approval to the project in March as part of the redevelopment plan for the area. The project has also received strong support from the Downtown Special Improvement District, the area's business association.

This week's proceedings drew no reaction from the several area residents who came to the meeting Tuesday night to hear the application, and the plan was passed unanimously with few comments from the board.

Groundbreaking for the new building is planned for next spring, according to Jeffrey Persky, one of the principals of developer Jamm Realty Corp., a subsidiary of the Bridgewater-based firm Schenkman/Kushner. Construction is expected to take about 18 months.

The development will mean a slight reorientation of Newark Avenue east of Grove Street, according to landscape architect Thomas Bauer of Melillo & Bauer Associates in Point Pleasant Beach. Following construction, travel on that portion of the street will be limited to buses and at some times the road will be closed to traffic and serve instead as a pedestrian walkway, Bauer said.

Approval of the site plan required the board's OK for Jamm Realty to consolidate 31 properties into one large parcel. All told the site - currently home to several parking lots, low-rise buildings and tracts of undeveloped land - will measure nearly 70,000 square feet.

The footprint of the new building will be shaped like a bent T. At the intersection of the two arms will be "the real heart" of the structure: a semicircular drop-off area and driveway facing Christopher Columbus Drive, said architect Peter DeWitt of DeWitt Tishman in Manhattan. Just off of this plaza will be the entrances to two mirroring lobbies, one each for the residential and hotel portions of the building.

Additionally, the driveway will lead into the parking garage situated along Morgan Street on the structure's north side. Much of the building's remaining street level space will be occupied by the retail stores.

The building will step up gradually from five stories on its west side to the full 34 stories on the east, DeWitt said. The structure will also narrow as it rises in a design meant to ease the transition between Jamm's building and others in the neighborhood, particularly the three-story, 19th-century building at the corner of Grove and Newark.

The neighboring structure provided other design cues, too.

"It will be essentially a red brick building with bands of light buff and charcoal gray," DeWitt said of the hotel/apartment building. "We use the different colors to break the facade up so that it reduces its apparent size."

Inside, the residential part of the structure will contain a mix of one-and two-bedroom rental units, while the hotel will offer a recreational facility, including a swimming pool.

South of Newark Avenue, surrounding the PATH station, will be a small paved park. Bounded by low walls, it will contain a kiosk, flowering trees and movable outdoor furniture.

"The reason we liked it paved in the most part is because of the great numbers of people who will frequent this place," Bauer said. "We've created a palette, if you will, that will provide a flexibility in the landscape for the neighborhood to energize this how they see fit."

Landscaping will also be used to camouflage the rooftop of the six-story parking garage, Bauer said.

Approval of the final site plan is expected once several conditions set by Planning Department staffers - such as providing detailed designs for the kiosk and guaranteeing storage space for maintenance equipment - are met. West side

In other business, the board voted 7-0 to approve a final site plan for the construction of 14 three-family houses at Sip, Emerson and Logan avenues on the city's west side, just north of Holy Name Cemetery.

The development will also include 42 parking spaces. Developer Charles Groeschke of CLG Associates in Jersey City assured worried area residents that the buildings are not meant to be low-income housing. Instead, he said, they would be sold as luxury housing at fair market rate, estimated at about $400,000 each.

"We are taking a chance in this endeavor to improve the neighborhood and create a new cornerstone," he said.

[kram]

You know, the same situation exists in the Washington/Baltimore Metropolitan area, previously my residence. It is now over 7million people 4th in the nation (compared to NYC metro's 21 million, including you guessed it NJ) and the exact same rivalries exist. Washington, with its governmental / international / transient style loves to use Baltimore as its playground but doesn’t take it seriously. Baltimore on the other hand with its Industrial / Provincial / Blue Collar background thinks DC looks down on them. Washingtonians love to go to Baltimore Oriole games but hate the Ravens. Baltimoreans blame Washington for steeling their Basketball team. They view Washington as a leech of Maryland funds and work force. High Tec Companied abound in DC, and Baltimore hates that they have a hard time luring them. 15% of the work force lives in one city and works in the other (45 miles apart). This "my place is better that your place is so weak" one can not see the forest for the trees. I love NYC, NJ, Jersey City, LIC you name it. Its time to realize all the things around

[TLOZ Link5]

Interesting comparison, Kram. *It's certainly true that rivalries exist between cities and their suburbs—or, in the case of Washington and Baltimore, twin cities.

[TLOZ Link5]

I've heard from some news sources that downtown JC is somewhat desolate if you factor out all the new office development—not many residential or worker amenities, few shops or restaurants, etc. *A columnist in the Post a while back said that downtown JC was only marginally better than downtown Dallas. *Is that necessarily true?

[JCMAN320]

Thats not true I go down there all the time. We have a large mall called Newport, new residences have gone up, and there are a large amount of shops and restaurants in the area that have gone up since that coloumn was published, especially in the newport area. Quite a few have gone up around Exchange Place as well.

[Kris]

July 4, 2003

New Condos Move Inland From Water in Jersey City

By RACHELLE GARBARINE

Housing development is marching inland from the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City, its focus changing to condominiums rather than the rental apartments that dominate the water's edge.

Evidence of the shift are two sizable condo projects — one under way, the other planned — on Montgomery Street, west of the shoreline.

The larger of the projects is a 113-apartment complex named Montgomery Greene for its location at the corner of Montgomery and Greene Streets, two blocks from the riverfront. Construction is to start in December on its 19-story tower with 108 apartments and a connecting six-story building with five full-floor lofts.

The new structures will replace the parking lot and two vacant brownstones now on the site. KOR Companies of Wall, N.J., in a joint venture with Time Equities of Manhattan, is developing the $41 million project, which will also have a 124-car garage and ground-floor stores.

The other building, with 46 condos now on the market for sale, is at Montgomery and Grove Streets, eight blocks from the shoreline. A seven-story building is rising on the site, formerly occupied by part of the Majestic Theater, which was built in 1907. The old theater's rear lobby, which is to be refurbished, will be the entrance to the new building.

The theater's front lobby is in a three-story building on Grove Street that, as part of a larger project, is being renovated along with three adjacent buildings dating from 1897 to 1930. The ground-floor space is being rented to retailers, the theater is being marketed to small non-chain users and the upper levels are initially being shown to service users like doctors, according to Exeter Property Company, the developer of the $20 million project.

By the end of the year, several other condo projects are expected to be under way on and around Montgomery Street, totaling 200 apartments, said Robert P. Antonicello, a principal of the ACI Group, a real estate services company in Jersey City. In addition, a 34-story, 523-apartment tower is planned along with a hotel on a site across Newark Avenue from the Grove Street PATH station. Its developer, Schenkman/Kushner Affiliates of Bridgewater N.J., has not yet decided whether the housing will be rental or condo. Construction is to start next spring.

Mr. Antonicello said that for many years developers viewed the city's growth corridor "as the narrow band at the river's edge." Today, he added, little developable land remains on the shoreline, pushing the growth inland. A weakened rental market, he said, was also encouraging developers to put up condos.

He estimated the riverfront rental vacancy rate at 7 percent, up from 3 or 4 percent last year, and said that average rents had fallen by 10 percent, to $24 a square foot annually, or about $2,000 a month. And low mortgage rates, he said, have encouraged people to invest in real estate rather than in the stock market.

Harry Kantor, president of KOR, which is primarily known as a suburban housing developer, said that earlier this year his company bought the Montgomery Greene site, which is near the Exchange Place PATH station and the historic Paulus Hook neighborhood, as a way to diversify. The complex was originally conceived as a rental. But Mr. Kantor said his company redesigned it as a condo to take advantage of the strong for-sale market.

The studio to two-bedroom apartments will have 500 to 1,400 square feet. Initial prices are from $162,500 to $735,000, or $325 to $525 a square foot. Prices for the lofts are not yet set. Sales are to start this fall.

The steel skeleton for the Majestic Theater Condominiums is rising and, along with four renovated buildings, transforming a site across Grove Street from City Hall. Exeter Property was chosen in 2000 as the site's developer by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, which foreclosed on the property in 1997.

Eric Silverman, Exeter's president, said that while the project was blocks from the water, it was near the PATH station on Grove Street, which was filling up with restaurants and boutiques, and was in the Van Vorst Park Historic District.

Mr. Silverman said he started the building as a rental but changed to a condo because people, helped by historically low interest rates, "want to invest in the city."

The building will have studio to three-bedroom apartments, with 700 to 1,500 square feet. The building's lobby, once part of the old theater, includes a 35-foot-high domed ceiling and such decorative touches as 13 plaster angels.

Since sales began seven weeks ago, 30 apartments have been sold. Prices have been raised 5 to 15 percent, to $175,000 to $500,000, or $310 to $330 a square foot on average. Completion is expected in January.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[NYC8588]

Is it just me or does the images posted by NYatKNIGHT on 12:29 pm on June 25, 2003 look like the Two International Finance Centre in hong kong

[Fabb]

We discussed their similarities before, in another thread.
Those pictures are excellent, btw.

[moreforme]

As a former Manhattanite who was first driven to Brooklyn and then Jersey City, I understand why NYer's as so upset by NJ's "leeching" off of NYC. *Everytime I saw a new tower going up in Jersey City, *I'd wonder with irritation, "Why!? Why not Brooklyn?" *But slowly, I came to realize why. *There's no real competition between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and Manhattan controls the cards. *It took NJ to finally make NYC realize its neglect of Brooklyn. * But it's a little too late. *

Developers and bankers have very little vision. *They need to see somebody else making money before they invest in a place. *Jersey City has, in no way, reached its full potential, but I dare anyone to come visit it and not see it HAS potential. *I had been looking to buy an apartment for a while. *I couldn't rationalized Manhattan's prices and the few neighborhoods in Brooklyn worth living in are overpriced as well. *So I gave NJ a look and found, behind that JC skyline, three historic brownstone neighborhoods built around parks. *(Bet you NYC faithfuls didn't know JC had history.) *I decided to put aside my NJ prejudice (afterall, it is this prejudice that makes Jersey City real estate affordable) and look at merely the facts: *its multiculturalism, beautiful buildings, easy commute, price and growth potential. *Why complain about JC's growth when I can take advantage of it?

Once I made the decision, I also understood the NJ prejudice better. *Because it is so close, it is so EASY to make the jump from NY to NJ. *The barrier is not physical--why is the East River not a barrier?-- *it's psychological! *

As for the *NJ/NY competition, both states are shooting themselves in the foot over the silly brawl. *For decades, big businesses have used this rivalry for their own gain. *They threaten to move to NJ, NYC capitulates and gives them HUGE tax breaks. *Giuliani had given away hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks. *Thank goodness Bloomberg, who had been a finance CEO himself and know their game, called their bluff. * *I haven't heard a peep out of those rich companies since. *

Let's face it, NYC has the prestige and the companies that value prestige will stay in NYC no matter what. *No free handouts needed. *But there are some companies that prefer value. *Let them come to NJ. *No need to give away the land. * *Why can't the two states cooperate and not let these companies take advantage of them? *

If NYC would stop hoarding, NJ would not need to steal. *Because NJ, and especially JC, lives in NYC's great shadow it can never be a great city. *I see tons of people, myself included, *taking the path train to spend their money in NYC every weekend. * So, give us a break, why begrudge our attempt to make ourselves self-sufficient?

[STT757]

"I've heard from some news sources that downtown JC is somewhat desolate if you factor out all the new office development—not many residential or worker amenities, few shops or restaurants, etc"

Yeah but if you consider Hoboken as part of the Jersey City Gold Coast that statement is false, Hoboken has excellent restaraunts and night life.

I enjoy going to Hoboken on Friday and Saturday nights, when My girlfriend and I marry (hopefully soon) we hope to get an apartment in Hoboken.

Her father works in Hoboken and owns a couple homes there, however renting an apartment from a inlaw might be wierd.

[JCMAN320]

Yea but think once the residential buildings on the drawing board goes up and PATH between WTC and Exchange Place is restored, I think it will be the way it use to be b4 9/11 when after 6:00 people still stayed around and hung out around da bars and restaurants. Lower Manhattan is also having the same problems as downtown JC no ones around too much after 6:00

[Zoe]

From GlobeSt.com

Luxury Condos Get Site Approvals
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: Jul 29, 2003 *10:12AM

JERSEY CITY, NJ-Local officials have given KOR Cos. the necessary site plan approvals to proceed with a 113-unit high-rise residential condo project called Montgomery Greene in this city's midtown area. Company officials say they expect to break ground next spring, and are targeting a summer of 2005 occupancy.
The 20-story luxury building, which is being designed by the local architectural firm of Lindemon Winckelmann Dupree Martin and Associates, will also include some 4,000 sf of ground-floor retail space, as well as 125 spaces of covered parking. The units themselves will include a mix of loft, studio, one- and two-bedroom residences.

KOR Cos., based in Wall Twp., NJ, is a developer of industrial, office and residential properties. Company officials have not released any cost figures on Montgomery Greene.

[JCMAN320]

Wall Street West
JC keeps attracting financial companies despite wooing from Big Apple
*
By John A. Martins
Reporter staff writer August 03, 2003

GOLD COAST GLORY - Waterfront employees making their way home from work on a typical evening use the trains, buses and light rail cars that make up the area's multi-faceted public transportation system.

Business advocates in Lower Manhattan are trying to lure Jersey City companies back to New York, but firms in the financial services sector are continuing to set up shop along New Jersey's Gold Coast.

Recently, the staff at both the New York Economic Development Corporation and the Alliance for Downtown New York unveiled an aggressive mailing campaign to increase awareness about the various benefits of doing business in Lower Manhattan. Targeting small and medium-sized businesses across the region, the mailing campaign included 326 mailings that went out specifically to companies in New Jersey, the majority of which are located along the Hudson River.

But financial firms are continuing to resist the lure.

Boston-based Fidelity Investments, the largest mutual fund company in the nation, celebrated the establishment of its ninth regional site at Jersey City's Harborside Financial Center Monday in a ceremony overlooking the Jersey City waterfront from the 10th floor of Harborside's Plaza 5 building. Government officials like Gov. James McGreevey, Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise and Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham were in attendance.

Citing the many fiscal incentives and other attractions that make New Jersey - and Jersey City - so attractive to business leaders, Fidelity executives said that putting roots in Jersey City just made sense.

"Jersey City is successful because you have adapted to a new way of doing business," said David Weinstein, an executive vice president at Fidelity. "We were attracted to [Jersey City's] labor pool, its telecommunications infrastructure and its proximity to New York City's capital markets."

Such compliments are music to the ears of local officials and planners, who say that they have for years worked hard to make Jersey City a viable option for companies looking to expand or relocate operations across the Hudson River.

But officials and planners in New York City aren't particularly thrilled about Jersey City's accolades.


SETTLING A SCORE

Brian Evans, a spokesperson at the Alliance for Downtown New York, declined to comment last week on the progress of the Big Apple's nascent marketing campaign, stating that it's too soon to tell how much interest the mailings generated.

But insiders on both sides of the river have said that a rivalry between the two states has raged for more than 10 years, a situation most describe as a contest to see who can attract the most profit-generating businesses.

Since 1996, the state has offered tax incentives to companies who either relocate or expand to New Jersey through the Business Employment Incentive Program [BEIP], said New Jersey Economic Development Authority spokesman Glenn Phillips. The program allows qualified businesses to earn up to 80 percent of the personal income tax withholdings from the new jobs created when they moved to the state.

And although the program has served the state well in the seven years it has been in use, Phillips said that interstate competition for businesses is an inevitable fact of regional life.

"There's competition among a lot of states with businesses," Phillips said. "We certainly recognize that New York and Pennsylvania will be trying to attract businesses. But New Jersey has a lot to offer. We have a great workforce and we're strong in the financial services sector and in high technology."

Officials say it is precisely that strength in the financial services sector that state and local governments have seized in their business retention and acquisition plans.

"We want New Jersey to be business-friendly and aggressively seek the financial services sector," McGreevey said last Monday. The best way in which to do that, he added, was to continue with New Jersey's tradition of facilitating both regulatory reforms and business support strategies.

Jersey City has taken the lead throughout the state in its efforts at reigning in regional financial businesses, through both state-sponsored programs and local tax abatement issuances. Since 1996, more than 30 New York-based businesses were awarded approximately $362 million in BEIP grants for either relocating or expanding to Jersey City.

As of last week, 11,192 new jobs had been created.

"[Fidelity's presence in Jersey City] is a significant sign of the potential being realized within our city as a true business destination," Mayor Glenn Cunningham said in a release. "Jersey City, called Wall Street West by many, is more than just a viable option; it is a smart alternative to other locales for establishing corporate infrastructure."

In addition, the increase of business activity isn't solely attributed to the strongly active economy in the years preceding the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, McGreevey said. Approximately 39,000 jobs were created in New Jersey since February 2003 through 449 projects that receive more than $750 million in financial assistance.


HUDSON'S ALLURE

Although Monday's ceremony marked Fidelity's intention to operate a regional site in Jersey City, the company has been present in town for more than two years. The company had kept a contingency site open at Harborside as normal procedure during its tenure at New York's World Financial Center.

"Operations at Harborside made sense before 9/11," Weinstein said Monday. "After 9/11, when we were forced to work in a temporary space for 14 months, it reinforced our thinking."

"Jersey City made sense for a few reasons," Weinstein added. "One is that it's both diversified from our Lower Manhattan operations but close to it. You have different power grids and traffic patterns. We were also very attracted to the business incentives in Jersey City, and being in the Enterprise Zone is very important. Those incentives are valuable."

Two hundred and eighty employees currently work at Fidelity's Jersey City location. And 90 more employees are expected to relocate to the waterfront by the fall through Fidelity's recent acquisition of Correspondent Services Corporation [CSC], a subsidiary of UBS Financial Services, Inc. The CSC employees will be relocating from their previous facility in Weehawken.

"We like to be in areas where there's a good labor pool that's specialized in our type of business," Weinstein said. "All you have to do is look around in Jersey City. Yeah, there are lots of competitors. But the employees in this region have been well-trained."

Fidelity also operates five investor centers in the state, with locations in Morristown, Millburn, Paramus, Princeton and Red Bank.

And although Weinstein said the company wasn't in a position to choose between New York City and Jersey City in selecting the location of its newest regional site, he acknowledged the fact that governmental bodies - from the state to the municipal level - do in fact compete with each other in harnessing businesses.

"It's nice to have different states and communities fighting over us," Weinstein added. "They know we have really good, well-paying jobs that attract people. We just don't want to move [our New York headquarters] anymore. We ended up doing both things; we're in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City. That diversifies our interests."

"We're very pleased to be here," Weinstein added.

[Zoe]

*
State Square
$31M MXD Set to Rise in Journal Square
By Eric Peterson - Globe.st
Last updated: Aug 25, 2003 *03:21PM

JERSEY CITY, NJ-Ground has been broken for State Square, a 12-story building that will combine 130 apartments and 15,000 sf of ground-floor retailing when it's completed in about 18 months. The complex, which will rise on the site of the old State Theater in this city's Journal Square district, will include 30 low-income units within its apartment component and will have an eight-story, 395-car parking garage.
The developer of State Square is a consortium whose principals include the Alpert Group, Applied Development Co., Panepinto Properties and former Congressman Frank Guarini. The project is also getting assistance from the New Jersey Housing Mortgage Finance Agency.

"We are extremely pleased to launch this project," according to principal Joseph Alpert, who notes that State Square marks the first new construction project in Journal Square in some 20 years.

"Journal Square has already received substantial capital improvements over the past three years," Alpert says. "We believe we have come up with an important missing piece in the overall effort to revive Journal Square--providing a place for people to live in the downtown area."

State Square will also be situated near one of the largest transportation hubs in the metro area, including the Port Authority of NY/NJ's Journal Square station for the PATH light rail system.

[matt3303]

Great point yanni. When in downtown looking at JC, it makes you feel like you're really in an urban jungle---that the city just doesn't "end" at the river. We need places like JC to keep the whole region growing and compete with economic machines like Hong Kong. While I agree trying to take the Stock Exchange and Statue of Liberty away from NYC is bad-natured and it's things like that that make us hate each other. Also, most tourists see JC and think it part of New York.

[JCMAN320]

ARMY TRANSFERS LAND TO THE CITY
Golf course part of plan for area's renewal

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

By Matt Porio
Journal staff writer

Hudson County golfers, still waiting for a planned Bayonne course, are a big step closer to playing in Jersey City.

The Hoboken-based Applied Company put up $8.5 million for the 50 acres of vacant land at the Army Reserve Center, where a private 18-hole golf course and residences are planned near the Port Liberte waterfront in Jersey City, according to Barbara Netchert, assistant executive director at the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency.

The Army Reserve Center will retain 20 acres of property that contain buildings and other facilities.

Jersey City Mayor Glenn D. Cunningham called the land transfer a "win-win for everyone" yesterday afternoon, following a ceremony for transfer of the property that included Army representatives and U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Hoboken.

Jersey City residents, he said, will benefit from taxes paid on the property, while Army reservists who live in the Reserve Center will benefit from improvements to the facilities that can be paid for with the $8.5 million purchase price.

According to Menendez, the land transfer "has been a long time in the making," referring to legislation passed in 1987 that authorized transfer of a large portion of the property to Jersey City and the state of New Jersey.

"Today was a great sense of accomplishment," Menendez told The Jersey Journal yesterday afternoon.

As part of the deal, Applied agreed to leave a swath of the land undeveloped as a possible realignment route for a section of Highway 185, which now has a sharp "hairpin curve" that could be straightened out if the highway is extended through the property, Netchert said.

According to Netchert, the developer, who could not be reached for comment, is already engaged in environmental evaluation of the area, which will probably take another year to 18 months.

She said it will probably be at least three to four years until development at the site is completed.

The 20 acres of the site retained by the Army houses units of the 77th Regional Readiness Command and overlooks New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

According to the Army, it served as a vital facility during the Cold War, and several members of the reserve units that occupy the site have been deployed for action in Iraq.

"The base has always been a good neighbor," Cunningham said. "We all come out of this feeling good."

[JCMAN320]

ETHNIC NEIGHBORHOODS: A SERIES
Paulus Hook serves a gateway, a turning point in city's history

By John A. Martins
Reporter staff writer August 24, 2003

Note: This article is the first in a new series by the Jersey City Reporter called "Ethnic Neighborhoods."

Since their beginnings, the communities in Jersey City have been in constant flux.

Groups of people have come and been displaced by powerful or subtle forces. Even in the city's pre-Revolution days, when Dutch settlers regularly fought with the indigenous Native American tribes, Jersey City life was characterized by movement.

Like many other communities across the country, Jersey City was shaped by various external factors. In pre-industrial times, when New York first began to grow as a megalopolis, Jersey City has existed in its shadow. Legal battles that decided ownership of waterfront property and port rights were won and lost, and both towns tried vigorously to grasp their share of the global commerce that the Hudson River and New York Harbor provided.

Historically, people under the stress of famine and war were lured to Jersey City's shores by the hope of a better life. Ethnic groups settled in neighborhoods like Harsimus Cove and West Bergen, and each tried, over time, to assert its place as a power-player in the city. From humble beginnings as low-wage factory workers, some of the city's oldest families can boast sons and daughters who have risen to very enviable statures as commercial leaders and government officials. Jersey City's past is a story driven by the American dream.

That trend, having grown stronger and stronger as the years went by, continues.

Now that Jersey City is experiencing a decidedly new and important era of its history, a period often referred to as a "renaissance" that began in the 1980s and continues to the present, it is important to take a look at the city's past to glean insight into what lies ahead. Like the tidal waters that surround it, Jersey City ebbs and flows.

OLD GATEWAY

The first region to be called Jersey City, Paulus Hook was named for a mid-17th century Dutch West India Company agent named Michael Paulusen. Originally a small island separated from the mainland by a marsh on the north and a creek on the west, it was connected to the mainland when a Dutch farmer by the name of Cornelius Van Vorst filled in the marsh and built a causeway over the creek. Paulus Hook is now bound by the Hudson River on the east, Marin Boulevard to the west, Christopher Columbus Drive to the north and the Morris Canal on the south.

The area was used for years as a departure point for ferries to and from New York, and only in the early 1800s did businessmen begin to see Paulus Hook's potential. Alexander Hamilton, who served as treasury secretary under George Washington, formed the Associates of Jersey Company in 1804 to lease the land and develop it as a suburb of Manhattan.

Adjacent to the thriving rail, industrial and commercial businesses on the waterfront, it grew in the 19th century into a dense mixed-use neighborhood that featured ornate private rowhouses for the city's wealthy, and tenement buildings for the city's not-so-fortunate residents. There were also businesses catering to every imaginable need.

The area is rife with historical milestones: DeWitt Clinton invented the steam engine at a building on Grand and Greene streets. Legendary New Jersey Gov. A. Harry Moore was raised in Paulus Hook. The southwest corner of Washington and Grand - on which now stands the Cornelia F. Bradford School - was the original site of the Mayor's Mansion and the first Jersey City Post Office.

As its industrial role grew with the success of companies like American Sugar and Colgate-Palmolive, the neighborhood was transformed into a primarily working-class enclave of Eastern European immigrants from countries like Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Germany.

Residents worked nearby at either the railroads or Colgate-Palmolive or further away at Kearny's Western Electric and New York's meatpacking plants.

HOME FOR EASTERN EUROPEANS

"Paulus Hook was always a great melting pot," says Barbara Bromirski, a fourth-generation member of a Polish family that runs a funeral home on Warren Street. "It was primarily Eastern European, and before that it was German and Irish."

Because the area was so compact, a tightly-knit community emerged. Churches dotted the landscape of brick row-houses. There was a tavern on almost every corner. Felix "Phil" Orzechowski owned a tavern at 64 Morris St. he liked to call "The House of All Nations."

"Everybody knew everybody who lived in the Paulus Hook area because all the children went to school together," Bromirski said. "We went to all different churches, but you socialized together. In the evenings, when the men came home from work, after you ate supper, everyone would sit out on their stoops. Brooklyn and Jersey City are the only two places in the country that use that word. The mothers would sit out there, the kids would play together, and everyone would keep an eye on everyone's children."

Added Bromirski, "Years ago, we had in the Paulus Hook area three butcher stores, four candy stores, two ice cream parlors, a dry cleaners and two bakeries (one was cake and bread and the other was strictly bread rolls and bagels). Every night, half the neighborhood would parade down to the bakery and buy hot, fresh rolls. We had a number of small, family-operated restaurants. Like the [still-existing] Flamingo, where you walk in and everyone knows you. It's sort of our own version of 'Cheers,' where everyone knows your name. We had a drug store. Mr. Cohen had a hardware store. The Strausses had a delicatessen. Mrs. Pinkus had a dry goods store."

Grounded by a set of four corner parks at the intersection of Grand and Washington streets, the neighborhood contained characteristics of both a big city and a small town. People were known mostly by nicknames.

"Everyone downtown had a nickname," Bromirski said. "We, as funeral directors, only found out these people's real names when they died."

"You could've lived in Paulus Hook your whole life and never have set foot outside," she added.

The close-knit character of the area persisted until the 1960s, when the same American dream that brought the Eastern Europeans to Paulus Hook also enticed them away from the bustling city, often toward the suburbs.

MASS EXODUS

"All the families moved away," Bromirski said. "People moved away because this was definitely a working-class neighborhood. They started to get wealthier and they moved out of town. They were all blue-collar workers and as they had children, and their children started growing up, they moved out into the suburbs to give their children something better than they had. They thought moving to the suburbs was going to be better. Even to this day, they come back and visit and say they wish they still lived in Jersey City. The first thing they'll say is 'We had it so good here. Nobody was rich, nobody really had much of anything, but we didn't know it. But we enjoyed it! Everyone got along.' "

As years of neglect caused buildings to empty and wither away, the dense neighborhood became sparse, almost desolate. The King Gussie Flats, 80 units of housing over three buildings at Washington and Sussex streets, were taken down in the late 1960s. Multi-family buildings became parking lots. Companies started to move operations elsewhere. Even Colgate-Palmolive began to slowly phase out its operations. The neighborhood became an eyesore, and it seemed as if no one cared for it much.

GROWTH SPURRED BY ACTIVISM

What turned the neighborhood around in the 1970s, however, was the vigilance of three city residents, said Bill Bromirski, Barbara Bromirski's brother and a former longtime Planning Board commissioner.

"Joe Duffy, Ted Conrad and Owen Grundy raised the consciousness of historic districts in Jersey City," Bill Bromirski said. "It was their ball-busting that made us see the significance of our brick row-houses. Their efforts kept the neighborhood stable until all the development began to happen."

That activism soon began to pay off extremely well. Savvy businesspeople in New York began to see a potential goldmine in Paulus Hook's old-world buildings and narrow streets. Professionals who worked in Lower Manhattan coveted the shorter commute and began to buy homes in the area. Entrepreneurs looking to get rich on rental income soon followed suit.

The first condo conversion in Jersey City happened on Montgomery Street near Washington Street. In the early 1970s, developer Arthur Goldberg turned the old New Jersey Guarantee and Trust Company into a luxury apartment building. Even former County Executive Robert Janiszewski (who recently resigned from office during a corruption scandal) lived there for a time.

Developers began to buy up property to build huge towers - both residential and commercial - on the waterfront. Although ferry service to New York from Paulus Hook had been discontinued in the 1960s, New York Waterway saw the nascent community as a potential market and opened up shop. The early- to mid-1980s saw people moving back into the neighborhood, instantly giving it a much-needed boost.

"The major residential buildings brought a lot of life to an otherwise dead area," said Ron Smith, owner of the Light Horse Tavern on Washington and Morris streets. "People again started to value the neighborhood. It was a closer commute to Lower Manhattan than the upper west or east sides of Manhattan. People were looking for value. And the prices were much better here than they were in New York."

The people on Paulus Hook's streets went from old-world factory workers with blue collars to fast-walking, fast-talking professionals.

Development further north along the waterfront accelerated Paulus Hook's regeneration, but banking crises in the late 1980s caused the construction to come to a screeching halt.

NEW GATEWAY

When he moved to Paulus Hook in 1989, Smith said that the "bubble had just burst." Real estate prices in the neighborhood kept declining until about 1992, the year Smith calls the trough of that particular economic cycle. As the economy was both stabilized and fueled by the national craze in the technology industry, the flow of investment money returned to Paulus Hook.

Things went undeniably well for the rest of the 1990s until the recession that started before 9/11 was put into full motion by the terrorist attacks. Smith, however, thinks the current economic depression is just another cycle in the economic history of Jersey City.

"In the next 12 to 18 months, you'll see things picking up," Smith said.

Smith says Jersey City's position as "Wall Street West" - the designation given to the Exchange Place area of Paulus Hook because of all the financial services companies with operations there - is what will ultimately change the face of the city. Its infrastructure, proximity to roadways and airports and desirable work force will make Jersey City one of the most dynamic communities in the state. And when that happens, Smith said, Paulus Hook will be the biggest winner of all.

"The significance of the development along the waterfront and what's happening west of Warren Street is only going to make Paulus Hook more desirable as a historical district, [especially because] of its trees, bricks and stone walkways," Smith said. "You have so much history here. In five or 10 years, this is going to be one of the most desirable areas in the state. It's going to be like Society Hill in Philadelphia or Charlestown in Boston."

And that means more people with more money. If rents and property values continue to shoot upward, Paulus Hook will become the city's silk-stocking district. The wealthy professionals who work on Wall Street in New York - or at Wall Street West - moving into the neighborhood will shape it into an exclusive, high-income enclave.

©The Jersey City Reporter 2003 *

[JCDJ]

"I've heard from some news sources that downtown JC is somewhat desolate if you factor out all the new office development—not many residential or worker amenities, few shops or restaurants, etc. A columnist in the Post a while back said that downtown JC was only marginally better than downtown Dallas. Is that necessarily true?"

-TLOZ Link5

That's the main difference between Jersey City and most other cities with a comperable Skyline (Albuqueque NM, Newark NJ, etc.). Most other cities have a large designated area for concerts and whatnot. Jersey City needs one of those. A concert area like that is planned for the base (or near the base) of the Goldman Sachs building, but I don't know if that's changed since they scaled it down. During July 4th there are occasional concerts on constructed-on-the-spot stages, but not much other than that.

That's a qualm many downtown residents have, Just North of the already existing developments in the Newport area (accross from I think, where Columbus St. is in Manhattan ), there's a new large area being fit for construction, the people who live there already want more green space (parks public places, etc.), but the developers want to add residential High Rises, and I think office buildings may be in the mix there.

However, things are changing, Many of the old warehouses(eyesores) of the early 20th Century and earlier, are being demolished or turned into affordable housing, (or in the case of one, it has a sign that says "Class A Office Space") which is making more areas more friendly and inhabitable.

What Jersey city does have is impressive though, almost every office building has at least 6 restaurants or shops on the base floors. The Flamingo on Greene and Montgomery, 20 + shops and stores in the roughly 4- 6 square block Newport area (outside the Mall), and planty on the Southern end of Downtown in the small townhouses area.

So while in some areas that lack amenities are changing, there are other places that are richly full of them.

[dbhstockton]

Liberty Park is a good potential venue. It's well-situated, it has light-rail access, and there's a vast amount of space. I've seen them set up a temporary grandstand there (its was one July 4th, like you said); maybe they could make a permanent structure. It would have the skyline and the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop! Fantastic!

[Kris]

IN THE REGION | NEW JERSEY

Rental Units Rising at Journal Square in Jersey City

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/09/28/realestate/njzone.184.jpg
The 12-story State Square building is the first new construction in Journal Square in Jersey City in 15 years, occupying the site of the old State Theater movie house. The building will contain 130 apartments, 15,000 square feet of retail space at ground level, and a parking garage.

JOURNAL SQUARE, with its bustling PATH train station, its ethnic restaurants, its dozens of little shops, an Art Deco Loew's movie theater and a statue of Jackie Robinson, is the acknowledged heart of Jersey City's downtown area. A building now going up will add some homes to that heart.

In the first new construction at Journal Square since an office building opened in 1988, a 12-story, 130-unit rental apartment building is being built on the site of the old State Theater movie house, which was set aside for redevelopment some years ago.

The apartments will be a mix of one-bedroom and studio layouts, with 30 units reserved for low-income occupants, said David Barry, president of the Applied Development Company of Hoboken, part of a consortium doing the construction with financing from federal, state and local redevelopment funds. The 100 other units will be leased at market rates.

The new building, called State Square, will have an eight-level parking garage at its core and 100,000 square feet of retail space at its base — with shops on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in the front of the building and on Sip Avenue at the rear.

The 395-car garage, which city planners say will provide much-needed relief to congested Journal Square, will have an entry ramp on Kennedy Boulevard and an entry ramp and an exit way on Sip Avenue.

Inside the building, one hallway — a "single-loaded corridor," Mr. Barry said — will serve both shoppers leaving their cars in the garage and those who live in the building.

"The city wanted to see parking there for the merchants in Journal Square," Mr. Barry said. "But they didn't want to have parking visible from Kennedy. So, the design we came up with is all apartments on the Kennedy side and on the four floors above the garage."

The design for the Sip Avenue side will "blend in" with the neighborhood, said Joseph Alpert, president of the Alpert Group of Fort Lee, another principal in the $31 million project.

"Journal Square has already received substantial capital improvements over the past three years," Mr. Alpert said, "new and renovated office space, commercial stores and restaurants, the newly renovated Loew's theater and several buildings belonging to Hudson Community College.

"We believe we have come up with an important missing piece in the overall effort to revive Journal Square, providing a place for people to live in the downtown area."

BESIDES Applied, which has completed a number of high-profile urban projects in the last few years, and Alpert Group, the consortium includes Panepinto Properties, Harwood Properties and a former district congressman, Frank Guarini.

The Journal Square redevelopment effort was started almost a decade ago, with the busy PATH commuter station as the catalyst, Mr. Alpert said.

Local architecture fans have also been raising funds and working with City Hall all that time to restore the Art Deco Loew's building as a nonprofit arts and entertainment center. Four years ago, the square was refurbished with a pedestrian area featuring fountains, old-fashioned lampposts and the statue of Jackie Robinson — who broke baseball's color line, playing his first major league game at Jersey City's old Roosevelt Stadium in 1946.

Ground was broken last month for the apartment building, at 2 Journal Square, a block south of the Kennedy overpass. The foundation is laid, and the pilings are in place. The entire job will take about 18 months, Mr. Alpert said.

The State Square project will be the first housing with a Journal Square address, he noted, although there are single-family and multifamily homes and two renovated older apartment buildings in the surrounding neighborhood.

Construction financing for the project was arranged with $20 million from a combination of taxable and tax-exempt bonds issued by the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, a $600,000 federal loan funneled to the project by Jersey City and $600,000 through another state housing construction loan program.

Mr. Barry said the redevelopment site was "ideally located" near one of the Port Authority's largest metropolitan transit hubs. "From Journal Square," he said, "commuting by public transportation is possible to Manhattan and Newark on the PATH trains, the buses, the ferries and every town in Hudson County on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail." New York Waterway ferry service is provided from Port Liberté in Jersey City, where Applied built the Port Liberté apartment development.

But in Journal Square, Mr. Barry said, "we are kind of pioneering a new area, bringing the first residential redevelopment downtown."

"Our company," Mr. Barry said, "is many times the first one into the pool, so to speak. With this project, we create a market in that square. When our building is done and leased, and we're getting the rents up, banks and lenders will be more open to other projects on other lots where the property may be underutilized."

NOT that the project developers want to significantly change the character of Journal Square. "It's important to keep that retail element," Mr. Barry said. "It's a nice place to walk and shop, and that's one of the great things about Journal Square.

Applied, which redeveloped the historic Essex and Sussex Hotel in Spring Lake as condominiums last year, is at work on several new phases of its Port Liberté development. Mr. Barry said 1,650 condos would be built at Port Liberté, starting with 57 high-end town homes right on the Hudson riverfront.

In the oceanfront community of Long Branch, Applied is redeveloping a 16-acre property, where it is building 100,000 square feet of retail space and 320 rental units. And it is a co-developer, with Matzel & Mumford, of Beachfront North, a 15-acre parcel where town houses and condos are under construction.

Applied, which built and manages the Shipyard residential complex on the Hoboken waterfront, is also working on another apartment tower there, to be called the Sovereign. In addition, Applied built the Palisades waterfront apartment tower in Fort Lee, which opened last year.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[JCMAN320]

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

Slowly, the 34-story Harborside Financial Center Plaza 5 waterfront office tower is starting to fill up.

Mack-Cali Realty Corp. announced yesterday that 20,664 square feet has been leased for 15 years to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision. This brings the 1 million-square-foot tower to 58.3 percent occupancy.

The Office of Thrift Supervision is the main regulator of all federally chartered and many state-chartered thrift institutions, which include savings banks and savings and loan associations. It was established within the U.S. Treasury in 1989, and has four regional offices located in Jersey City, Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco.

"This lease demonstrates both the appeal of Harborside to a diversity of businesses as well as our continuing ability to secure long-term leases with credit-quality tenants," said Mitchell E. Hersch, chief executive officer of Mack-Cali.

Among the tenants in the $150 million, 480-foot-tall Plaza V, on Greene Street between Morgan and Pearl, are SunAmerica Asset Management Corp., Forest Laboratories, Inc., Fidelity National Financial and others.

- Agustin C. Torres

[kliq6]

the competion is fine between these two city, the problem is that while Jersy City builds, NYC debates about the Far West Side development, if they think 40 million square feet of office space can be built then i say build it. NJ is moving ahead while NYC trys to convince companies to relocate to Brooklyn and LIC. Dont they get it, its still in the city and those areas costs and taxes are still higher then Jersey City, so why bother relocating there

[Kris]

October 26, 2003

POSTINGS

In Jersey City, Medical Center Is to Become Apartments

By RACHELLE GARBARINE

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/10/26/realestate/26jc.jpg
Jersey City Medical Center buildings are to house 1,200 rental and condo units.

When the Jersey City Medical Center finishes vacating its cluster of tall buildings in March, a second chapter is to begin for the battered Art Deco landmark, which rises on a promontory of the Palisade Cliffs in the center of the old port city.

The plan is to convert eight brick and terra cotta buildings, 8 to 22 stories high, into 1,200 market-rate rental and condominium apartments and 100,000 square feet of commercial space. There will also be a preschool, an art and music center, a library and a museum on the medical center's history. Three low-rise medical center structures are to be razed for a garage for at least 800 cars.

The 14-acre complex's distinct Art Deco profile, with stepped setbacks on the upper floors, is to be preserved. So will its two-acre front lawn, said George Filopoulos, president of Metrovest Equities of Manhattan, which the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency named last month to redevelop the 11 city-owned buildings in the complex.

The medical center, which is on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places, was built from 1928 to 1941. The now mostly vacant complex is considered too old and too big, and the hospital is relocating to a new home downtown, at Grand Street and Jersey Avenue.

Suzanne Mack, executive director of the redevelopment agency, said Metrovest's plan "is sensitive to the complex's historic elements and in the community's best interest."

Mr. Filopoulos said that prices in the complex, which offers views of Manhattan, are to be determined. The $200 million redevelopment, for which Mark Lipton and RKT&B are the architects, is to be completed in stages, from 2005 to 2007. The work is to include installing new mechanical systems and restoring the buildings' crumbling facades. Features such as terra-cotta panels with designs of fragmented circles, chevrons and zigzags will be preserved or recreated, as will decorative grillwork that edges the setbacks at the top of the buildings like a lacy border.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Zoe]

This is a good sign. Those buildings have been creepy up til this point. I have freinds that go clear out of their way to avoid that hospital based on its looks alone. The new hospital is built close to the light rail between the Goldman Sachs building and Liberty Science Center, and looks state of the art. New investment into these buildings could really turn that area around (which is only a few blocks from Journal Square)!

[Ninjahedge]

July 4, 2003

New Condos Move Inland From Water in Jersey City

By RACHELLE GARBARINE

Housing development is marching inland from the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City, its focus changing to condominiums rather than the rental apartments that dominate the water's edge.

Evidence of the shift are two sizable condo projects — one under way, the other planned — on Montgomery Street, west of the shoreline.

The larger of the projects is a 113-apartment complex named Montgomery Greene for its location at the corner of Montgomery and Greene Streets, two blocks from the riverfront. Construction is to start in December on its 19-story tower with 108 apartments and a connecting six-story building with five full-floor lofts.

The new structures will replace the parking lot and two vacant brownstones now on the site. KOR Companies of Wall, N.J., in a joint venture with Time Equities of Manhattan, is developing the $41 million project, which will also have a 124-car garage and ground-floor stores.

The other building, with 46 condos now on the market for sale, is at Montgomery and Grove Streets, eight blocks from the shoreline. A seven-story building is rising on the site, formerly occupied by part of the Majestic Theater, which was built in 1907. The old theater's rear lobby, which is to be refurbished, will be the entrance to the new building.

The theater's front lobby is in a three-story building on Grove Street that, as part of a larger project, is being renovated along with three adjacent buildings dating from 1897 to 1930. The ground-floor space is being rented to retailers, the theater is being marketed to small non-chain users and the upper levels are initially being shown to service users like doctors, according to Exeter Property Company, the developer of the $20 million project.

By the end of the year, several other condo projects are expected to be under way on and around Montgomery Street, totaling 200 apartments, said Robert P. Antonicello, a principal of the ACI Group, a real estate services company in Jersey City. In addition, a 34-story, 523-apartment tower is planned along with a hotel on a site across Newark Avenue from the Grove Street PATH station. Its developer, Schenkman/Kushner Affiliates of Bridgewater N.J., has not yet decided whether the housing will be rental or condo. Construction is to start next spring.

Mr. Antonicello said that for many years developers viewed the city's growth corridor "as the narrow band at the river's edge." Today, he added, little developable land remains on the shoreline, pushing the growth inland. A weakened rental market, he said, was also encouraging developers to put up condos.

He estimated the riverfront rental vacancy rate at 7 percent, up from 3 or 4 percent last year, and said that average rents had fallen by 10 percent, to $24 a square foot annually, or about $2,000 a month. And low mortgage rates, he said, have encouraged people to invest in real estate rather than in the stock market.

Harry Kantor, president of KOR, which is primarily known as a suburban housing developer, said that earlier this year his company bought the Montgomery Greene site, which is near the Exchange Place PATH station and the historic Paulus Hook neighborhood, as a way to diversify. The complex was originally conceived as a rental. But Mr. Kantor said his company redesigned it as a condo to take advantage of the strong for-sale market.

The studio to two-bedroom apartments will have 500 to 1,400 square feet. Initial prices are from $162,500 to $735,000, or $325 to $525 a square foot. Prices for the lofts are not yet set. Sales are to start this fall.

The steel skeleton for the Majestic Theater Condominiums is rising and, along with four renovated buildings, transforming a site across Grove Street from City Hall. Exeter Property was chosen in 2000 as the site's developer by the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, which foreclosed on the property in 1997.

Eric Silverman, Exeter's president, said that while the project was blocks from the water, it was near the PATH station on Grove Street, which was filling up with restaurants and boutiques, and was in the Van Vorst Park Historic District.

Mr. Silverman said he started the building as a rental but changed to a condo because people, helped by historically low interest rates, "want to invest in the city."

The building will have studio to three-bedroom apartments, with 700 to 1,500 square feet. The building's lobby, once part of the old theater, includes a 35-foot-high domed ceiling and such decorative touches as 13 plaster angels.

Since sales began seven weeks ago, 30 apartments have been sold. Prices have been raised 5 to 15 percent, to $175,000 to $500,000, or $310 to $330 a square foot on average. Completion is expected in January.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Hudson Point and North Pier were the two I worked on.

There are developments going in all the time, but the place is still pretty dead when it comes to things to do. If you are 16 it is fine to hang out at the mall, but there are still very few attractions.

Coming from Hoboken, I van say that Hoboken has more Yuppie diversions, JC is turning into more of the "downtown" feel. I hope it continues, but I just wish they didnt build SO BIG so close to the water. When I first moved in, I could actually SEE the Statue of Liberty from what is now "Sinatra Drive", but the great seawall of JC is now blocking all vistas south.

[Kris]

November 2, 2003

IN THE REGION | NEW JERSEY

Thinking Small in Subleasing in Jersey City

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/11/02/realestate/njzone.650.jpg
The view of Manhattan from Harborside Financial Center in Jersey City is a feature promoted by its brokers.

CHARLES SCHWAB & COMPANY made the decision before the gleaming glass 19-story, 577,000-square-foot office tower built to its specifications on Jersey City's waterfront was even complete: go to Plan B.

It was not that the building itself, Plaza 10 at Harborside Financial Center, had somehow fallen short. It was that the San Francisco-based brokerage house's need for it shrank in the economic downturns of late 2000 and 2001, as the structure was going up. Schwab had signed a 15-year lease for the entire structure, built and owned — until recently — by the Mack-Cali Realty Corporation. It put the entire building up for sublease in late 2001.

After the Sept. 11 attack on the financial district in New York, two large financial service companies moved in: Mizuho Bank, a Japanese bank taking 107,000 square feet, and Instinet, an electronic brokerage service arm of Reuters, taking 144,000 square feet. The rest of Plaza 10 — 326,000 square feet — remained vacant, though, as the economic slump went on, new buildings continued to rise on the Hudson riverfront, and more and more sublease space was thrown onto the commercial office market.

Last spring, Schwab and its brokers — Cushman & Wakefield and Handler Real Estate Services — decided it was time for Plan C: break up the floors of the building, if necessary, and recruit smaller tenants aggressively — offering them all the amenities Schwab had built into Plaza 10, as well as architects and builders to customize a tenant's space and a big break on the rent. Schwab's long-term lease is for $34 per square foot annually, but sublease deals of about $25-a-square-foot are being offered, for terms as short as five years or less.

Schwab's real estate director, Paul J. McDevitt, said Cushman's broker-analysts came up with the approach. "Cushman recommended that this low-hanging fruit was being ignored by others," Mr. McDevitt said. "We thought we would take the opportunity to go after it."

Jersey City has traditionally been sought after as a site for large administrative and back-office operations for Manhattan financial services firms and other corporations. But the market for such big-fish tenants has slowed drastically in the last several years.

"UBS Paine Webber, over at the Newport Office Center VII, a stone's throw away, is in virtually the same situation as Schwab," said Richard Donahue, a Cushman broker, referring to the fact that that company has had a half-million square feet of space available for sublease for almost two years.

He also mentioned a Goldman Sachs building nearing completion at the harborfront. Goldman Sachs has said it will occupy all of its own building, but brokers expect it will occupy only a fraction of it. Also, Lehman Brothers has 375,000 square feet on the market for sublease in Jersey City, he said.

When these mammoth firms, and others, came to Jersey City in the 90's, "the market was hot as a pistol, with virtually no vacancy," Mr. Donahue said. "But financial service firms are not in an aggressive growth mode any longer — is that an understatement, or what?"

Last summer, Schwab and Cushman held a large reception for real estate brokers to begin the new pitch to smaller users. "Mr. McDevitt made it irresistible for brokers to bring deals," said a Jersey City realtor, Skip Dolan, who heads Dolan Realty, which deals primarily with small-office tenants. "He said: `We will not be undersold.' "

"I didn't let any grass grow under my feet," Mr. Dolan said. "I brought over eight tenants, and there are six transactions pending."

Mr. Donahue, who is handling the Schwab subleasing for Cushman, said deals with five new tenants had closed in the last six weeks, and two more were on the brink.

The seven deals will fill only 13 percent of the available space. "But we have momentum," Mr. Donahue said. "Obviously, it takes more time and work to fill a large office space with smaller tenants, but we are discovering there is a real market in it."

THE new tenants at Plaza 10 include Park Avenue Capital, which will relocate from Park Avenue at 57th Street in Manhattan, taking 3,500 square feet; Unigestion Ltd., a Swiss financial firm opening its first United States office, taking 4,521 square feet; and Perr & Knight, an insurance company based in Pacific Palisades, Calif., opening its first East Coast location and taking 4,181 square feet.

Two other tenants are relocating from within Jersey City: Arlington Hill Investment Management, taking 5,120 square feet, and Welgrow International, a shipping company, taking 3,972 square feet.

Lease terms on the five new deals range from five to 15 years.

One factor making the deals easier, Mr. Donahue said, is that Mack-Cali no longer owns the building, although it continues to manage it. Mack-Cali owns five other office buildings totaling more than three million square feet of Class A office space at Harborside Financial Center. Its agreement with brokers had been that any potential tenant shown space at Plaza 10 also had to be shown available space in the other buildings as well.

Plaza 10 was sold on Sept. 29 to a Manhattan-based investor, IStar Financial, for $194 million. Real estate executives believe that is the highest price ever paid for a building in the area but noted it is still a bargain by Manhattan standards. The purchase price came to $336 per square foot. Last year, 399 Park Avenue, a trophy property in Manhattan, sold for more than $600 a square foot. The landmark G.M. Building recently sold for more than $800 a square foot.

"When Mack-Cali sold," Mr. Donahue said, " the benefit for us was that it became wonderfully easy to go after tenants our own way. The complications with Mack-Cali disappeared." Mr. Dolan said he now told potential tenants for the Schwab building that "all tenants are being treated like 100,000-square-foot tenants."

"Smaller companies needing space don't have the people in house to do a build-out when they sign the lease," Mr. Dolan said. "They don't have time to hire a contractor, an architect, etc. But Schwab is providing those things. If a tenant needs X number of private offices, a server room, a pantry and a certain size bullpen for its employees, they make their reqests — and within a few days' time, they get a set of plans."

Paul Spiegel of Handler, the brokers working with Cushman, said the Schwab property raises the bar as to what is available to smaller tenants in the New York metropolitan area. The building offers space with substantial glass, partitioning and tenant-controlled air-conditioning, since the systems were installed floor by floor.

If all that were to be available to a small tenant in Manhattan, it would almost certainly cost more than what Schwab is charging now, Mr. Spiegel said.

In addition, he said, the Jersey City building has an added amenity: the view. "The best views of Manhattan, the Empire State Building and the George Washington Bridge are from the Jersey side of the Hudson," Mr. Spiegel said. "Everybody knows that."

Mr. Donahue said he could not speculate on how long it might take to fill up the building, small tenant by small tenant. "All I know," he said, "is that this is working, after a long period of things that weren't working, so we're going with it."


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[JCMAN320]

Liberty Science Center to expand
$17 million OK'd project details sketchy

Thursday, November 13, 2003

By Rudy Larini
Newhouse News Service

A state agency laid the groundwork yesterday for the first major expansion of the 10-year-old Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.

Members of the state Economic Development Authority approved borrowing $17 million to finance the design of the new Science Center exhibit space, the addition of 1,000 parking spaces and the renovation of the nearby railroad terminal building along the Hudson River in Liberty State Park.

When construction of the Science Center expansion begins in about a year, exhibits in the science center will be relocated to the terminal building for the estimated 22 months of construction, according to Tom Vincz, an EDA spokesman.

Dina Schipper, the Science Center's communications director, referred all questions about the expansion project, including its effect on attendance, to the EDA.

"The EDA is running the project," she said, adding the venture is still in a very preliminary stage.

"We don't have an architect, we don't have plans and we don't have a sense of what is going on," she said. "There is really nothing to talk about yet."

Vincz said the expansion is "consistent with the goals and mission of the Science Center."

"It is a cultural fixture and a learning resource for New Jersey schoolchildren, and more and more it is becoming a destination for families on day trips," he said. "That's where a lot of their attendance is coming from."

He said the Science Center has the highest attendance per square foot of any similar science museum in the country.

Walk-in admissions are running 17 percent ahead of projections for the current year, he said, with 186,028 visits compared with the projected 159,530. He did not have figures for class trips to the museum. The science center has attracted a total of 7 million visitors since it opened in 1993.

Vincz said the actual expansion, with an estimated cost of roughly $85 million, will add new exhibits to the center's three themed fields of health, inventions and the environment. Each theme occupies a floor of the 160,000-square-foot building, which has hundreds of interactive exhibits and the nation's largest IMAX dome theater.

"This will bring in more world-class exhibits and continue the mission of being a valuable resource for New Jersey," he said.

He said he did not know what portion of the existing Science Center, if any, would remain open during the expansion or if all exhibits would be relocated to the railroad terminal.

"It's not clear how that transition will take place," Vincz said. "All that remains to be worked out."

He added the expansion will include an upgrade of current exhibits.

"There's always a continuing emphasis on keeping the exhibits up to speed," he said.

[JCMAN320]

No Corporate Logo for Tallest Building
Goldman Sachs pulls its Planning Board bid

Saturday, December 06, 2003

By Douglas R. Stivers
Journal correspondent

Financial giant Goldman Sachs, which is constructing the state's tallest building on the Jersey City waterfront, has abandoned plans to crown the skyscraper with a several-stories-high sign, ending a controversy stirred by the proposal.

After carrying the application over for several Planning Board meetings, the company finally withdrew its submission Tuesday, when the plan would have faced a straight up or down vote.

"We've never put our logo on any office building, and we're not going to put it on this one," said Bruce Corwin, a spokesman for the company.

The proposal had drawn fire from several neighborhood residents and its prospects with the Planning Board appeared dim.

Although a letter Goldman Sachs submitted to the board before Tuesday's meeting indicated that the company reserved the right to resubmit the proposal - as it still does - Corwin's statement seemed to negate that possibility.

Planning Board members has asked the city planning staff to amend the Colgate-area redevelopment plan to specifically bars such signage.

"We felt putting those crown signs up is not consistent with the master plan," board member Leon Yost said. "We're still asking staff to look at amending the redevelopment plan."

According to Yost, the redevelopment plan for the area states that such signs are permitted if the board grants a waiver to the applicant, a condition he interprets to mean it is not allowed under normal circumstances.

However, in an effort to remove any ambiguity, Yost said the board felt more comfortable amending the plan to insert language that specifically bars the signs.

The board had balked in September when Goldman Sachs ap- proached it with the idea of adding its name to the top of the building, on Hudson Street.

Former Planning Board member Jeffrey Kaplowitz, who attended the Sept. 23 meeting, was more blunt in his assessment.

"It's a disgrace," he said at the time. "You don't see anyone putting a sign on top of the Empire State Building."

In other business Tuesday, the board:

Put off a decision on a request to subdivide one lot into two at 222 and 224 Beacon Ave. when neighbors objected and board members found inconsistencies in the developer's application.

Granted Winograd Development preliminary approval to redivide 11 lots into eight at 519 to 5371/2 Martin Luther King Drive to construct seven attached two-family houses with the eighth lot reserved for a driveway and parking. Following extensive testimony, the board said the project would be a great boon to the area.

Granted the Newport Association Development Company a one-year extension to construct a 23-story, 414-unit full-service hotel.

Approved the conversion of a warehouse at 37 Edward Hart Road to office space, in accordance with the Liberty Harbor Redevelopment Plan.

Approved a proposal to subdivide four existing lots into five new lots at 313-319 First St.

Told a property owner who violated city regulations for a minimum setback for 24-28 Wales Ave. to make adjustments to the property before returning to the board on Jan 13.

Journal staff writer: Jason Fink contributed to this report.

Copyright 2003 The Jersey Journal.

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How to revitalize Journal Square?

Princeton graduate students offer vision, will make presentation

By: Dave Hoffman
Reporter staff writer 12/21/2003

A Princeton University study says that improved pedestrian avenues, enhanced streetscapes, and a greater perception of safety are some ways to revitalize Journal Square.

Six students enrolled in an Urban and Regional Planning workshop at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton conducted the study and prepared a planning report in conjunction with the Jersey City Economic Development Corporation recently.

The Urban Planning Workshop is a required course for sophomores seeking a two-year Masters degree in Public Affairs. The program accepts students with two to four years of work experience. This year's students were selected from across North America, including, California, Mexico, the Midwest and the East Coast.

Having worked in the field, the six students offered valuable planning services at no cost to the city.

"It is considered one of the best training institutions for people who are going to be involved with city planning," said EDC employee Colin Egan. "We got the best and the brightest for free." Egan is the Director of the Friends of the Loews theater renewal project.

There will be a public in-depth presentation of the study on Jan. 13.

The course is taught by Professor Paul Buckhurst, a professional urban planning consultant who has taught at Princeton for 20 years. EDC Urban Enterprise Zone Director Roberta Farber previously worked with Buckhurst on similar projects in Paterson.

"Princeton contacted me because we had worked together before," Farber said.


A target for improvement

The study encompassed a 24-block area spanning from Newark Avenue to Montgomery Street, and Summit and Tuers avenues to Tonnele and Garrison avenues.

Formerly a central business district, Journal Square is now one of four areas targeted for revitalization as a Special Improvement District (SID). Some of the area's unique features are the PATH station, which makes it a hub for transportation, and its Urban Enterprise Zone demarcation, which offers tax incentives for area businesses.

The students considered several goals from the city's 2000 Master Plan.

"They looked for ways to encourage more people to spend time in Journal Square so they'll patronize the businesses and organizations," Farber said.

The research consisted of conducting building analysis and land use surveys, meeting with community leaders, and reviewing current and old plans for the area. They looked at existing structures, open space, transportation, the workforce, and the shopping environment.

"We talked with a lot of people with an interest in the future of Journal Square," said Buckhurst, "We met with the mayor, city councilpeople, city agencies, the planning department, the engineering department."