Jersey City Rising

[JCMAN320]

Allowing taller towers gets OK, and criticism

Friday, March 28, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

In an 8-1 vote, the Jersey City City Council introduced amendments to the Powerhouse Arts District Redevelopment Plan on Wednesday that will allow a developer to exceed height and density standards in the original plan.

The vote paves the way for Toll Brothers to build three towers Downtown, 30, 35, and 40 stories tall. The original plan limited the height of buildings in the area to roughly 10 stories.

Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop voted against the amendments on the grounds that it goes against the intentions of the original plan.

"Up until this point in time there has been zero public support for these changes," complained Jersey City resident Daniel Levin. "We are shifting gears in a 40-year redevelopment plan after four years."

Neighborhood activists who protested the amendments at the Planning Board said they plan to turn out in full force for the council's April 9 meeting when the amendments will be up for final adoption and a public hearing will be held.

Toll Brothers also plans to build a 550-seat performing arts theater with gallery space and the 24,000-square-foot Provost Square plaza.

Toll Brothers would also contribute $1.5 million to the startup of the theater. The development includes 11 live/work units for artists that would be price-restricted to 70 percent of the market value.

[poppad]

I Love Jersey City But I Think I Might Like Newark Better. Aside From The Downtown Area And Some Areas Like Hamilton Park, Most Of Jersey City Is A Sh1t Hole. They Are Building So Many Condos And The Vacancy Rate Is Extremely High. Newark Has Capacity For More People With Their Wider Streets. Driving In Jersey City Is Horrible, Especially During Rush Hour. Newark's History Is More Intriguing And There Are Many Mansions In Forest Hill Wequahic And Other Parts Of Newark. All In All Its The Better City

[poppad]

And By The Way Greenville Is Worst Than Any Part Of Newark I Know.

[JCMAN320]

Whoa, whoa, whoa back up there coatcheese. First off there are many Victorian mansions in Jersey City located around Lincoln Park and the West Bergen neighborhoods that are like the ones in Forest Hills. Jersey City is not a sh*thole as you so ignorantly put.

Newark does have a great deal of history, but Jersey City was the first permanent European settlement in New Jersey with that site being Bergen Square in 1660. Also Pavonia and Commpunipaw, present day Lafayette, were settled by the early Dutch settlers in 1630!!! Long before Newark was settled in 1666. Jersey City has a very illustrious history that is so deep and rich that it would take to long to type. Many firsts happened here along with Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier at Roosevelt Stadium in 1946 with the Dodgers minor league team the Montreal Royals. Dr Martin Luther King got a docterate from my college Saint Peter's College. George Washington met General Lafayette, at a house that dates from 1742 that still stands and being renovated, to discuss battle plans. Also there was a famous battle that took place in Downtown JC at Fort Paulus Hook that is present day Paulus Hook. Four major routes of the Underground Railroad all convereged in Jersey City under the Hilton Holden house near the old Medical Center. The house still stands and is being preserved with the safehouse underneath still there. I can go on and on but again it would take too long.

I grew up in Jersey City and still live here and my family has been here since right after the time of the American Revolution with the earliest year being 1780. The Bloomer part of my family owned a trucking company Downtown in the mid 1800s that was horse and carriage and the other English part of my family owned a tug boat company on the Hudson River around the turn of the 20th century. I take extreme offense to your statements which are ignorant and untrue. Newark isn't a dump, have you been through every part of Newark??? Newark not horribble at rush hour, I always hated driving through Newark when coming back from visiting friends at Seton Hall because it is a traffic nightmare. Yes Greenville is a low-income area and improvished and I happen to live near the boarder of it and the people there are great just gang issues but there are still nice safe blocks in Greenville and again I take extreme offense.

If you like Newark over Jersey City thats fine, but you might want to back up those facts with arugments that hold more water than just blantently attackin Jersey City. All you want to do is insight a fight and I am not the one you want to do it with!!!

[brianac]

Window Shopping

Taking in the River View From Both Banks

By SUZANNE SLESIN

Published: March 30, 2008

MAYBE it was the sun dancing on the water or the Statue of Liberty looking so majestic or the ferries making their way to and fro. I was dazzled by the views that two buildings — one in Jersey City, the other in Battery Park City — will have in common.


Kate Glicksberg for The New York Times
77 Hudson Street


Kate Glicksberg for The New York Times
The Visionaire

Sensing my “I hate to leave Manhattan” attitude, Stephen Faraday, a sales consultant at 77 Hudson Street, a 48-story glass tower in Jersey City, said, “TriBeCa can be your playground.” He quickly noted that Jersey City was readily accessible from Manhattan by PATH train, by car and by ferry.

The 420-unit condominium was designed by John Cetra and Nancy Ruddy of Cetra/Ruddy Inc., a Manhattan architecture firm, and developed by K. Hovnanian Homes.

Mr. Faraday steered me through the sales office for 77 Hudson, which is on the 17th floor of an office building a couple of blocks from the tower, now under construction. There were huge photographs of the Manhattan skyline.

“The idea was to maximize the number of homes that have incredible views of Manhattan and panoramic views that stretch from the Statue of Liberty to the George Washington Bridge, “ Mr. Faraday explained.

I had to struggle to look away from the views and concentrate on the building’s amenities. One thing caught my attention: the heated outdoor swimming pool (open May 1 through Oct. 1) that will be in what Mr. Faraday described as a half-acre park atop the building’s parking garage. The park will also include a quarter-mile running track, a dog run, a barbecue area, a fire pit and sloping lawns. Inside 77 Hudson, there will be 3,000 square feet of space for a fitness area, a children’s playroom, a spa, and a yoga and Pilates room.

“It’s resort lifestyle living, themed like a boutique hotel, and with the amenities included in the maintenance charges,” Mr. Faraday said. “Of course, services like massages and personal trainers are, well, extra.”
Of course.

There’s also a pet spa and pet cleaning area. Considering the pristine model kitchens and bathrooms in the sales office, I would certainly appreciate not having to bring a wet dog into my apartment.

But I was already trying to figure out which of the three kitchen schemes I would choose.

Mr. Faraday rattled off the options: Atlantic Luxe (white Carrara marble, African wenge floors, white Pedini cabinets); Harbor Chic (silver cabinets, white-oak flooring and “Portuguese limestone,” Mr. Faraday whispered, running his hand over the counter surface); and Hudson Mod (“the most traditional, with eggshell quartz counters, exotic wood cabinets and American chestnut flooring.”)

The bathrooms are the same throughout. I was especially intrigued by the trough-shaped Lacav double sink outfitted with slim faucets designed especially for the building. Behind the tub, the wall was covered in textured chiseled stone tile that Mr. Faraday said was inspired by the rock surfaces found in European fountains.

“Imagine water trickling down,” he said, even though the only water in sight, with any luck, would be in the tub. There is also a separate glassed-in rain shower.

“I have not had anyone come in here and not say, ‘Wow!’ ” Mr. Faraday said. I felt I had to oblige.

Available apartments range from a 561-square-foot studio on the 18th floor for $422,000 to a 1,799-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit on the 45th floor for $1.57 million. Mr. Faraday said that five of the six three-bedroom penthouses, ranging in price from $2.1 million to $3.1 million, had been sold.

Meanwhile, back on the New York side of the Hudson, the tall and angular Visionaire, at 70 Little West Street in Battery Park City, a 251-unit 35-story condominium tower, is touting the platinum rating it expects to receive from the United States Green Building Council.

The building was designed by Rafael Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in New York and developed by the Albanese Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Albanese Organization in Garden City, N.Y.

Of course, there are the views, and amenities like an indoor lap pool, and fitness and spa areas. But here, it’s the eco-friendly building that’s the draw.

I tried to get with the program.

At the sales office near the tower, Ann Froelich, a sales manager for the Marketing Directors Inc., ticked off the building’s green features: recycled-wood floors laid in a mosaic pattern in the lobby, the greenery on the 7,000-square-foot terrace that will retain rainwater, elevators with brakes that generate electric power, and solar panels made from used computers that will provide 5 percent of the energy needs.

“They did not miss a trick,” Ms. Froelich said, referring to the building’s creators. They include Tim Button of Stedila Design in Manhattan, who designed the distinctive kitchens (bamboo-covered cabinets, unusual shiny brown tile backsplashes from Waterworks, river-washed granite counters). He also designed the limestone master bathrooms outfitted with teak cabinets, as well as the refreshingly brisk all-white second baths, which have overscale subway-tile walls and white Waterworks geometric sinks.

The prices for available units — occupancy will begin in the fall — range from $680,000 for a 605-square-foot studio on the fifth floor to $2.96 million for a three-bedroom, three-bath apartment on the 23rd floor.

According to Ms. Froelich, about 45 percent of the units have been sold, and that’s from floor plans and simulated views. Soon, though, buyers will be able to go up in the building.

That might be the time for me to think more seriously about which side of the river I would like to look out from. One thing is sure: In either case, the Statue of Liberty will always be front and center.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times.

[JCMAN320]

On Ianmacs site, he talks about another Whole Foods coming to Jersey City rumor, and the exorbant charges that NY Taxi drives charge Hudson County residents.

http://newyorkssixth.com/

[Malcontent]

Are they about to break ground on the Applied rental at the corner of Grand and Marin, or is that project on hold for now?

[JCMAN320]

Well they cleared the site out recently I would think they might be. Also considering the fact it's a rental and not a condo in this market now, I think it will be built.

[JCMAN320]

MAKING 'BANK
Developer sets price for land city wants

Thursday, April 03, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Manhattan businessman Steve Hyman has an offer he hopes Jersey City can't refuse.

Hyman, whose wife, Victoria, owns the Sixth Street Embankment, wants to sell the unused railroad turnaround to the city for $10 million - the amount a city appraisal said the property was worth two years ago.

Hyman believes the property is worth double that now. But to end the legal tug-of-war over the eight-block stretch, he's willing to sell, he said.

But the would-be sale comes with a condition.

Hyman wants city officials to change the zoning for a roughly 20-acre area on both sides of Newark Avenue down the hill from Dickinson High School that his wife's limited liability company purchased from Conrail in order to develop 4,000 units of housing. Currently the land is in the shadow of the New Jersey Turnpike extension.

Development "on steroids," Hyman called it last week, noting he'd want tax abatements and every other incentive the city has to offer. Most of this land is currently zoned for either open space or one-, two-, or three-family homes.

City officials have been trying to take control of the Embankment almost from the time various limited liabilities companies owned by Hyman's wife bought it for $3 million from Conrail in July 2005.

Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy wants it for a transportation corridor, while others, led by the Embankment Preservation Coalition, want the property saved for open space.

In a major development last year, an obscure federal panel called the Surface Transportation Board ruled Conrail didn't properly abandon the site when it sold it Hyman.

According to an attorney hired by the city, once Conrail properly abandons the site next month, the city will have the chance to condemn it and buy it for the same amount Hyman's wife paid.

But the city's top attorney, Bill Matsikoudis, isn't counting on that outcome.

"I'd be happy to conduct settlement discussions with Mr. Hyman's attorneys," Matsikoudis said. "A successful (legal) outcome is not guaranteed until the outcome occurs. And . litigation comes with a cost, not only in terms of dollars and cents, but in terms of time and labor."

[JCMAN320]

RAD plan a $quare boost

Saturday, April 05, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City officials are coming up with a RAD-ical plan for Journal Square - and right on time as far as some developers are concerned.

To spur development, city honchos intend to carve out a special "revenue allocation district" in the center of the city so a certain amount of property taxes - or payment in lieu of taxes in the case of tax-abated properties - collected in the area can be used to raise bigger bucks in the bond market.

The money raised from selling bonds would then be used to finance infrastructure projects within the district, officials said.

"We are already a transportation hub in Journal Square. Now we want to restore some of the magnificence to what Journal Square used to be," said Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy. "It's an investment in infrastructure back in your city."

The concept is receiving rave reviews from developers who have projects brewing with the district, whose tentative boundaries stretch from Summit Avenue to Tonnelle Avenue, and from Sip Avenue to Pavonia Avenue.

Peter Mangin, president of Jersey City-based Garden State Development, is exercising an option to purchase air rights over the PATH rail lines to the west of Kennedy Boulevard. Needless to say, Mangin, who hopes to build a mixed-use development over the six-acre area, is "supportive" of the idea.

"I think that (the RAD) would ultimately assist us in helping to pay for infrastructure costs that would have a spill-over effect for the entire area," Mangin said.

Joseph Panepinto, who has built several projects in the Square, including the ADP Building with Mangin and Hartz Mountain, said if the RAD happens - and other projects in the Square take off - he might replace the Burger King and Dunkin Donuts that sits on land he owns on Magnolia and Summit avenues with a high-rise office tower.

"It makes a lot of sense," Panepinto said about the RAD. "If some of that money comes back to help us get a project started that's a good idea."

The complete plan should be ready in about eight months, said Jersey City Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Robert Antonicello. The plan would have to be approved by the city council.

Current thinking is to use between 10 and 15 percent of taxes collected in the area for the RAD, he said.

The RAD is based on tax incremental financing (TIF), which has been used to raise money for projects in 49 states, including New Jersey, said Eugene T. Paolino, a prominent real estate attorney in Jersey City.

TIF money is currently being used to help finance infrastructure costs for Hudson Yards in New York City, a 350-acre development on the city's west side, Paolino said.

[brunfuss]

was doing a look thru Emporis.com, i suggest taking a look at Elizabeth NJ.

there are about 15 proposed high rises for the city, 14 of which are being developed by Celadon, and all but 1 of them are 40 stories tall. if you click the link for Celadon, you can even see a rendering of the buildings.

anyone have any details about this?

[66nexus]

was doing a look thru Emporis.com, i suggest taking a look at Elizabeth NJ.

there are about 15 proposed high rises for the city, 14 of which are being developed by Celadon, and all but 1 of them are 40 stories tall. if you click the link for Celadon, you can even see a rendering of the buildings.

anyone have any details about this?

You should start a thread about Elizabeth and post any findings you may come across. Celadon is perhaps the start of a new wave of construction there

[Hamilton]

^^^Better yet, do a search. No need to start an EElizabeth thread. This thread was on the front page:

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12570

[injcsince81]

was doing a look thru Emporis.com, i suggest taking a look at Elizabeth NJ.

there are about 15 proposed high rises for the city, 14 of which are being developed by Celadon, and all but 1 of them are 40 stories tall. if you click the link for Celadon, you can even see a rendering of the buildings.

anyone have any details about this?

Three things:

1. It's a JC thread. If you want to talk about Elizabeth, then start an Elizabeth thread.

2. If you work for Celadon, then you need to take a shill course. You're being too obvious.

3. In this RE market, I'd be surprised if they build even one of those fifteen planned 40-story towers in Elizabeth () in the next 10 years.

[tbal]

I couldn't help but notice how small, multi-family developments (I'm talking buildings in the 5-20 unit range) are sprouting up and filling in the gaps all over the Italian Village section of Downtown. The forms for the foundation of a five-story building at 274 Newark Avenue are being assembled, and the first concrete will probably be poured at some point in the coming week. 362 Fourth Street, the long-vacant lot next to the popular Madame Claude Cafe, was cleared about two weeks ago and was filled with construction workers this afternoon assembling rebar for the foundation of whatever will fill that relatively large plot of land. At 374 Seventh Street, the foundation has already been poured and construction is progressing quickly on a new 4-story, nine-unit apartment building. And, the forerunner of this wave of smaller-scale buildings, 369 Fifth Street (a 12-unit building), is nearing completion.

It should be interesting to see if something begins to rise soon at 337 Third Street, where a mid-sized 2-story building was demolished about a year ago and soil testing took place over the winter.