Jersey City Rising

[ianmac47]

The property tax situation in New Jersey is absurd, and there are a number of things at play here that have really created the problem

1. Multiple municipal madness (also, the title of an excellent book about the problem) There are more than 500 municipalities in the state. Dozens of towns have less than 5,000 people. This means there is a huge amount of bureaucracy supporting all the little towns. At a minimum there are 5 council members for each town. Some have seven. Some have mayors on top of that. Then of course, most of these towns have their own police departments, fire departments, and emergency responders. In many other states, most of these services are consolidated into more regional governments. The small towns can't save money through bulk purchases, which drives up taxes. For example, a town might need to replace a fire truck, but they are bidding on one unit. Its unlikely they will get any volume discount. Many other states have regional fire fighting, so maybe they are buying 10 or 20 units at a time, all to the same specifications and receive volume discounts.

2. Multiple Office holding.
State officers from the assembly and state senate can also hold positions in the county and local government. Nothing gets people re-elected to their local positions faster than "bringing back money from Trenton." So there is a lot of state money spent on local services from dual office holders. State Aid to municipalities pours in from Trenton because none of the dual office holders want to rise local property taxes so they take state money away from state programs to feed the local budgets.

3. More School Districts than Municipalities.
There are I believe a hundred or so more school districts than there are municipalities. Some districts have 0 schools and are responsible solely for shipping students to other districts. Some towns have multiple districts. All this comes down to lack of ability to negotiate with contractors. Publishers of school books for example, create text books to cater to large districts like Texas-- and give them a discount for buying in bulk. New Jersey has somewhere around 1.4 million public school children. There is no reason why there shouldn't be discounts for cafeteria contracts, trash removal, book and computer purchases, ect.ect. But the districts are so small there is no way to leverage that population into a solid negotiating block. New Jersey has a great public school system, especially compared to many others. but the state wastes a lot of money. There is also a lot of overhead then on highly paid administrators rather than on teachers. Every school district has a superintendent, as well as principals.

4. Pensions.
These three conditions produce a lot of people suckling from the government teat through pension plans. The salaries of elected officials in small towns aren't that much -- many receive just a few thousand dollars a year. But thats enough to get them a credit towards state pension plan, which calculates payments based on the highest three years of salary. Plus you also have, proportionally, a lot more high paid administrators. Every police department has a chief, as well as captions and Lts. Fire Chiefs. Superintendents. School Principals.

[RYinNJ]

There is no doubt that the less a government needs to tax the better. However, my point is that our services are superior to most. I grew up in Emerson, NJ(10 miles from NYC) with a police dept that covered 1.5 square miles with four police officers on duty at all times. They would respond to any emergency within a minute. I graduated from a public high school with 60 students in my graduating class and with the most up to date technology, books and wonderful teachers. The town has voted down any attempt to merge with neighboring schools or police departments to reduce or stabilize the tax base. The reason always being we like it the way it is! People will complain that taxes are high but admit it is worth it! Virtually no crime, excellent schools, a DPW that responds the next day after calling if you need something picked up. This is how well -to -do Jersey likes it. Also to state NJ has higher racial strife then elsewhere is absurd. Perhaps in 1960's Newark, but times have changed and Jersey including it's suburbs are some of the most racially diverse in the country. Furthermore, our higher education system isn't half bad either. I graduated from Rutgers and received my Masters from Montclair State University, two fine examples of higher ed anywhere in the country. Lastly, our toll roads are in excellent shape considering they are the most heavily traveled in the nation. I will admit that Our interstate (non-toll roads) highways are in shambles, but this is a result of a shortage in federal dollars. We pay the most in taxes to Washington but get the least amount in return. WOW, JCman now I know why you get so annoyed by outsiders who criticize our cities and state.

[JCMAN320]

http://lwdmr.com/galleries/5/

Here are the renderings of the Bates Project at the corner of Grand and Bates St. No word on when it will start yet. This is from ianmac's site Newyorkssixth.com.

[investordude]

Just curious, since you claim to know even though by your own admission you've spent most of you life in the area. Look, some things about New Jersey are good. Tax money being used intelligently is *not* one of them, and your view that New Jersey's egregious tax burden is justifiable is part of the problem.

I'm sure you did fine in school, but would you really objectively say Rutgers is a better school than, say, UC Berkeley or UCLA? Yet California passed proposition 13 and the tax-lover doom and gloomers have been inaccurately predicting problems that never arose ever since.

Also, I find it intriguing that you think NY metro suburbs are not unusually segregated, especially given your very dubious rational about why your "well to do" school didn't want to merge with a larger district. In other words, wealthy people carved out an exclusionary area for their schools.

I can definitely tell you that most affluent areas in other dynamic places, such as Texas or California, have good schools and are less segregated. Try Palo Alto, Cupertino, or suburbs of north Dallas like Plano. Excellent schools - MUCH more diverse.

You should explore the country and then that can give you some perspective about the amazing value you're getting for your tax dollars.

[ianmac47]

Emerson is actually a perfect example of how NJ wastes money and why there should be a statewide effort to combine municipalities. There are fewer than 8,000 people in Emerson but there is six council members and a mayor. That's seven elected officials ruling over less than 8000 people. Absurd. Bergen County in particular has several dozen of these micro-boroughs.

Would fire coverage really not be any better if there was a regional Bergen County fire department? Would crime be higher if there was a regional police force? Its doubtful that services are improved by having a local fire department and a local police department. Coincidentally, Bergen County has TWO law enforcement departments at the County level. The County Police and the County Sheriff's department.

[injcsince81]

PGA Tournament With a View of the New York City Skyline

By DAMON HACK
Published: May 16, 2007
The Barclays golf tournament, a fixture at Westchester Country Club in Harrison, N.Y., since 1967 and the inaugural PGA Tour playoff event, will move to Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City in August 2009, bringing professional golf closer to Manhattan for at least one year.

Suzy Allman for The New York Times
The Liberty National course, a 7,400-yard layout bordered by townhouses in Jersey City, opened last July.


“Liberty has a lot of potential,” Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, said Sunday during the Players Championship. “With camera angles, 4,000 feet on the water and the Statue of Liberty very much a part of the landscape, it will look more like New York to the rest of the country when it’s on television. The golf course was built with hospitality in mind, and I think it will be a nice move in 2009.”




Although the Barclays — formerly the Westchester Classic and the Buick Classic — has been played at the same course for four decades, Finchem and the club’s membership agreed last year that Westchester would be its host for only three of the next six years, including 2007 and 2008, with an option for a fourth year.
That left the Tour with a gap to fill for its FedEx Cup playoffs, and Finchem chose Liberty National, a 7,400-yard layout designed by Tom Kite and Bob Cupp and built by Paul B. Fireman and his son, Dan Fireman, for $150 million.
Finchem said the Tour had not decided where the Barclays would be played in 2010 and beyond.

Liberty National, which opened last July, has gained acclaim among businessmen and politicians. Rudolph W. Giuliani and Robert K. Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, are among the club’s founding members.
Liberty National has built up plenty of cachet, with ferry and helicopter service, $1 million Belgian stone cart paths and challenging holes with panoramic views of the Statue of Liberty and the New York City skyline.
If the course holds up to professional competition and if the tournament is viewed as successful, Liberty National may continue as a PGA Tour site and also begin courting major championships, Ryder Cup matches and Presidents Cup matches.

“Though Westchester has been a great venue for years, Liberty is the next new thing out there for the Tour to sink its teeth into,” Dan Fireman said in an interview. “It’s an exciting new venue for golf, and we hope to showcase it. Tiger Woods wants to conquer everything out there. Until he conquers Liberty, he hasn’t.”

Cupp, who collaborated with Jack Nicklaus to build Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, called Liberty National his defining moment.
“Players, deep down, love to compete on hard golf courses, and the Tour likes to see 30-mile-an-hour winds,” Cupp said. “The course has places to make birdies and places to make a bunch of ‘others.’ It’s a course that has every shot.”

In location and style, Westchester Country Club is much different from the wind-swept Liberty National. Westchester, nearly 600 yards shorter, is a classic course lined by large trees and dotted with small greens.
Before moving to August as part of the FedEx Cup playoffs, the Barclays was often overshadowed in its June date on the Tour calendar, one week before or after the United States Open. Woods, for example, who rarely plays the week before or after a major, has not played at Westchester since 2003.
Last year, when it was rumored that Westchester would cease to be a regular stop on the PGA Tour calendar, the Tour veteran Billy Andrade was among those who bemoaned a potential change.

“If you polled every player on our Tour and said name your top three or four, Westchester Country Club is in the top three or four,” Andrade, who won there in 1991, said last year. “I hope we do whatever it takes to continue to play here because this is a fabulous venue.”

Although Finchem did not rule out returning the event to Westchester beyond the Tour’s deal with the club, he said he liked the idea of rotating the location. The lure of a course a stone’s throw from Lower Manhattan, he said, would only increase the tournament’s appeal.

“We wouldn’t at all have a problem with our home base being Westchester,” he said. “It’s great as far the tournament goes. The only thing is, you are trying to reach and excite a metropolitan area of 10, 11 million and make sure it has a full flavor that is really part of New York. It would just make it a bigger event. That’s not to take anything away from Westchester at all. It’s just to say that we’re in the business of trying to make big events.”

[JCMAN320]

Great News!!!!! Good job Jersey City!!!!

[investordude]

I think this golf course is great for the region, especially if its well covered like this. Should also help the condo tower sales.

I wonder what golfers themselves think though - I would imagine wind conditions on the harbor are less ideal than in Westchester for actually playing professional golf.

Still, especially on TV, that might make it more fun to watch.

[macmini]

$106M vote of confidence for Downtown

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

A Woodbridge-based development company has purchased 30 Montgomery St. and its neighbor, 2 Montgomery St., in Downtown Jersey City, for a whopping total of $105.87 million - and the plans for the site might open a new chapter for the city and its already red hot waterfront real estate market.

City sources tell me that Onyx Equities LLC plans to demolish the buildings to make room for a spectacular, mixed-use complex similar to the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

The project would feature a 14,000-square-foot open air plaza with shops and restaurants.

The building would also have more than 1.2 million square feet of retail, residential, office and luxury hotel space, continuing the trend of mixed-use construction in Jersey City.

The location is one of the most marketable and expensive sites in Jersey City, just a block from the Exchange Place PATH station and thus minutes from Manhattan's Financial District.

There have been no plans submitted to the city yet, and officials with the company did not return calls seeking comment.

If true, the proposal shows the continuing maturation and diversification of Jersey City's residential and commercial market, which in recent months has seen an innovative proposal from one of the world's most noted architects.

"This is the type of building that gets built in major metro areas like New York and Chicago," said one city official.

The 30 Montgomery St. building, built in 1974, is home to bankers, lawyers and real estate brokers, along with a number of Jersey City government offices, including the city's Planning Department, Redevelopment Agency, and the Jersey City Economic Development Corp.

Sources tell me the company plans to let leases expire in the upcoming months and may buy out others in order to clear the building. Meanwhile, the city is working on plans to consolidate all offices, perhaps building a City Hall annex on Grove Street.

The 2 Montgomery St. building is the previous corporate headquarters of First Jersey National Bank, but is currently fully leased to Met Life.

Though 30 Montgomery St. dwarves its neighbor in size, the buildings sold for roughly $52.5 million each. City officials say the similar sale prices has to do with the similar zoning.

It appears The Donald's charm works on both sides of the Hudson River, after Metro Homes and the mogul himself celebrated the sales of more than 300 units at Trump Towers Jersey City - in Trump style of course.

There were beautiful models, a yacht that carried real estate brokers from Manhattan to the shores of Jersey City and, of course, a bit of self-promotion.

"It is the most successful real estate project in the state of New Jersey," said Dean Geibel, owner of Metro Homes, who has partnered with Trump on the project.

Since the sales office opened seven months ago, 304 of the 444 available units have sold in the first 55-story tower, with prices ranging from $450,000 to $2 million.

That means 43 units sold per month, which either beats or compares with other Jersey City condo development sales at the height of the real estate boom, said one local official who tracks the market.

"The success of the Trump project means a lot. It shows there is a high demand for luxury condos," the local official said.

Buyers can expect to move into their new digs by next spring, Geibel said. However, the start of construction on the 407-unit second tower is still some time away and depends on the success of the first tower.

"The quicker we sell out the first tower, the quicker we can start construction of the second tower," said Geibel.

About 15 percent of the buyers are moving out of Manhattan into New Jersey in pursuit of value, while the majority of the remaining buyers are people who are moving from other parts of New Jersey to get closer to their jobs in Manhattan, said Geibel.

[JCMAN320]

Good job macmini you beat me to it buddy. I read this today and this really made my day. I can't wait. JC just won't stop moving and shaking it truly is remarkable.

[sfenn1117]

^Now that's a site for the skyline......it deserves nothing but a top notch, soaring building.....maybe the best spot for a 1,000 footer.

[JCMAN320]

1,000 footer for Jersey City; I can only hope and dream and hope. lol. I would love to see those babies reachfor the sky. That area needs that because that was one of the first buildings built in 80's for downtown and t no doesn't fit the plan JC has for downtown. Needs to go can't wait!!

[investordude]

I'm trying to understand why the developer thinks the city will approve the building - it says the previous buildings sold for the same price based on exisiting zoning. Is this developer have connections - he seems awfully confident in a fairly detailed plan for the site.

I think he should be allowed to build this, but why does he think he'll get a green light?

[ianmac47]

I think the lots are zoned like the rest of the waterfront-- super high rise. Meaning the existing buildings are not built out on the lot, and they can be demolished for a higher building. The only thing I wonder is, isn't the PATH line like directly under that lot?

[tbal]

I wouldn't be surprised if this thing ends up being taller than the GS Tower, given the location of the property - directly behind a tall building (10 Exchange Place) - and the amount of $$ the developer has paid for the site.

In other news, I can confirm that ground has been broken for at least the Monaco towers at Washington and Sixth Street...there were at least two pilings already in the pavement and a whole bunch of them lying next to the crane on the site. From what I've seen at 77 Hudson, they will most likely drive a few of these into the parking lot, dig up the parking lot, excavate the site, and then begin driving in a few hundred pilings. I'm not exactly sure why they drive pilings in before excavation, but that's the way it was done with 77 Hudson.