Downtown Construction Boom

Tris Mccall (Originally published in Discover Your Neighborhood)
April 19, 2006

The rough song of the bulldozers, pile-drivers, and cranes � that�s the soundtrack for life in Downtown Jersey City. Wherever you go, out by the glass towers of the waterfront, behind the new entrance to the Grove Street PATH Station, in the warehouse district, across the street from Victory Hall, you�ll encounter construction. On the closed stretches of Washington Avenue by the Powerhouse, the trucks of the work crews line halfway to Christopher Columbus; across Marin, teams of hard-hatted construction workers lay the foundation for the western most of two new towers that will soon flank the Boulevard.
There will be retail space available on the ground floor of these buildings. But like almost all of the recent construction in Jersey City, these are primarily residential projects. Over the next few years, the largest municipality in Hudson County is poised to grow considerably larger. Thousands of new condominium and rental units are scheduled to become available for sale or lease. The Downtown Ward � already the largest in the city � will likely welcome an entire small suburb�s worth of growth. Many of these new homes and apartments are in luxury hi-rises and developments priced at more than $600 per square foot. We all know that Jersey City is in the midst of an unprecedented real estate boom. But is interest in our town really this fevered?

�Don�t look at it from a Jersey City perspective,� suggests Jamie LeFrak, co-developer of Newport. �We�re part of the greater New York City market. And if you look at the housing stock in that market � the overall housing stock � you�d compare it to the amount of new development you�re seeing here, and you�d pretty much shrug. A couple thousand new units? Add that to the other twenty million on the other side of the river.�

The LeFrak organization is unafraid to keep adding. The Shore Club (580 Washington Blvd.), a luxury condominium crown atop the mostly-rental 600-acre Newport development, is a multi-staged project that has already drawn intense interest from potential buyers. Since opening its sales office in September, 211 of the 214 available units have already sold � many of them for more than half a million dollars. What�s perhaps surprising is that LeFrak was able to move these high-priced condominiums without bothering to advertise them. The interest in Left Coast property is so heated that word-of-mouth and internet discussion groups are generally enough to fill waterfront towers with new tenants and owners.

�What people don�t necessarily realize,� continues LeFrak, �is that New York City has a housing shortage, and that�s probably been true since the 1940s. Any housing that gets added to the area helps with catching up with the demand created by the shortage. It�s more than likely that Jersey City has been springing up to relieve that demand for NYC housing. After all, people keep showing up in New York City, and they all need roofs over their heads.�

It was once believed that the Jersey City housing market was entirely skyline-driven, and thus it was mandatory to locate all new towers at the lip of the Hudson River, or with unobstructed views of the Statue of Liberty. But Manhattan builders have begun to grasp the advantages and conveniences of life in Jersey City, or perhaps they�ve just discovered faith in Hudson County as an emerging market in its own right. With almost all of the Downtown waterfront currently occupied, developers have stepped back a few blocks from the eastern edge of New Jersey and purchased lots on Washington Avenue, Greene Street, and Marin Boulevard. These towers will be tall enough to offer panoramic views of New York City � at least from the higher floors � as their press releases make clear. But they�ve been just as keen on marketing their proximity to quick public transit and the renascent Downtown commercial district.

The Athena Group, a real estate developer headquartered in Manhattan, is co-developing the lot at Washington and First bordered on its south and west sides by the Hudson-Bergen light rail tracks. While there�s nothing but rubble on the site now, soon the gleaming-glass and terraced complex called �A� (sales office at 97 Hudson in Hoboken) will rise from the abandoned lot. Closer to completion is Montgomery-Greene (sales office at 66 York Street), a partnership between Wall Township�s KOR Companies and Manhattan-based Time Equities. The concrete-and-steel frame that now looms over the Exchange Place PATH Station will shortly become a nineteen-story tower featuring 113 elaborately-appointed condominiums. Perhaps most famously, business-mogul-turned-TV-star Donald Trump has committed to bringing Trump Plaza Jersey City (Washington and First) to the vacant lot south of the Powerhouse. This mammoth two-tower 862-unit project is also a partnership between a New York financier and Jersey developer Metro Homes LLC.

Like most other waterfront towers, these will bear the hallmark of New York architectural style: slimness, verticality, plate glass frontage, hi-rise elegance, a certain corporate feel. But the waterfront is zoned for skyscraping projects. Once all the parcels of land east of Marin Boulevard are occupied, developers will have to turn further inland, where most neighborhoods have protected their block grid through historical preservation ordinances. The future of Downtown development may not be the Shore Club, but instead LeFrak�s small-scale projects west of Marin Boulevard and the Newport shopping mall.

In picturesque Hamilton Park, noted for its array of well-preserved nineteenth-century brownstones, the LeFrak Organization has erected two smaller rental properties meant to echo the architectural scale of the neighborhood. The Roosevelt (10th and Manila), the second and smaller of the buildings, filled almost immediately once units were made available. �As we did during the construction of the Abraham Lincoln � the rental property right next to The Roosevelt � we tried to evoke colonial 1910 apartment-building style�, offers LeFrak. �I�m glad we got a second shot at it, because I think we got it right to a greater extent this time.�

Although it may not appear so to a casual visitor or to a New Yorker scanning our skyline from the West Side Highway, hi-rise waterfront development in Jersey City has always been accompanied by a parallel interest in the refurbishment and preservation of our pre-existing housing stock. Many of the city�s most notable homegrown developers � Liberty Harbor�s Jeff Zak and Peter Mocco, for instance � began their real estate ventures with restoration projects. Brothers Paul and Eric Silverman of Exeter Properties � best known for their breathtaking restoration and adaptive re-use of the Majestic Theatre (228 Montgomery Street) � are extending their track record of historically sensitive development with two ambitious developments elsewhere in Hamilton Park. Exeter has taken pains to give the residences at The Schroeder Lofts (234 Tenth Street) an eco-friendly design. Closer to the park, the nascent development at the old St. Francis Medical Center (25 McWilliams) promises to bring a pedestrian-friendly strip of boutique retail to the historic neighborhood.

�We�ll be restoring the park facing on the west side of the building,� explains Eric Silverman, �There�ll be a market and a dry cleaner, and we envision a health club and a nursery school. We�re going to remove the bricks in the windows, and create a new fa�ade. As always, the plan will be to create a structure that�s a destination, a visual focal point � one that blends in with neighboring buildings and encourages and enriches the pedestrian experience for everybody in the area.�

�We haven�t always done small-scale stuff, but we have always done good stuff�, continues brother Paul. �We generally have picked projects that nobody else wanted, but where we�ve seen possibilities for restoration and the productive expansion of a neighborhood.� Exeter�s immediate future plans include a further extension of their transformation of Grove and Montgomery Streets. Sketches of their mixed-use development at the southeast corner of the intersection � which will take the place of the disused Sim�s Carpet Building � suggest that the building will echo architectural features of both the Majestic Theatre and City Hall. Exeter�s work on Grove Street demonstrates how property developers can alter the feel of a streetscape, knit together city blocks, and augment the visual coherence and ambient pleasure of an urban Downtown. The Silverman brothers� long experience restoring property in Jersey City and their investment in the community has deepened their understanding of the city�s needs. �We spend a lot of time getting to know these neighborhoods. We attend the organization meetings � Van Vorst Park Association, Hamilton Park Neighborhood Association � and we listen to what gets said. We do business here, too.�

As residential development expands westward, away from the waterfront, dialogue between neighborhood groups and builders will become increasingly vital. Schenkman-Kushner, creator of the Grove Pointe (100 Newark Avenue) mixed-use complex, altered the design of their structure after a protracted negotiation with Jersey City smart-growth activists. �We needed some additional density to make the numbers add up�, states Jeff Persky, a principal at Schenkman-Kushner and one of the project�s co-developers. �We got together with neighborhood leaders, and agreed to put a park by the PATH station. In return, they agreed to the density changes.�

The Harsimus Cove Association and the Downtown Coalition of Neighborhood Associations recommended that Grove Point be stepped back from the street to create a more human scale for pedestrians. They also requested that the builders use materials compatible with the brick-and-mortar Harsimus aesthetic. Rather than resenting these suggestions, Persky and Schenkman-Kushner incorporated them into the redesign of Grove Pointe. �I actually appreciated their input,� says the developer, �and I believe the final project was better than what we originally proposed. We were able to take their ideas and implement them in a way that was mutually satisfactory. I was very appreciative of the time they spent, their knowledge of the neighborhood, and their passion for Jersey City. It ended up being a great team effort.�

If Grove Pointe and the redevelopment of the PATH station was a cordial negotiation, the foundation of the Powerhouse Arts District was a full-bore diplomatic struggle. The debate over whether or not the municipal government should dedicate the Warehouse District to arts-related enterprise lasted for more than a decade, and drew in activists, politicians, journalists, developers, historians, builders, and rubberneckers attracted to an acrimonious argument. When Acting Mayor L. Harvey Smith signed the PAD ordinance last autumn, the battle reached a tenuous equilibrium. Under that ordinance, all new development in the district must conform to the regulations specified in the city law; residential loft space must accommodate the needs of working artists, and a small percentage of all units must be set aside for moderate-income arts professionals.

So far, those who�d predicted that these restrictions would stay the hand of developers have been proven resoundingly incorrect. The PAD is redeveloping at a healthy pace � and arts-related businesses are moving in. Waldo Lofts (159 Second Street), slated to open in the winter of 2006, will feature huge hallways, hoist beams on the ceilings, and copious natural light in its 82 condominium units. Two blocks south, the Caulfield Brothers will be bringing a 13,000 square foot black box theater to its development at 126 Morgan Street. Rental lofts at 150 Bay Street and condominiums at 311 Washington Street are currently under construction and, like other developments in the district, both have reserved lofts that will be distributed by lottery to artists that have registered with the municipal government. Greentree Construction, co-developer of the Schroeder Lofts, is working on two buildings in the PAD � and 140 Bay Street has become the first of the former warehouses to open appropriate ground-floor art space.

�We�ve just had the first opening at our brand new art gallery,� boasts Greentree developer Vince Wilt. �Right now, it�s open by appointment. But we have brought in a local artist to take charge of it. There�s always reason to worry when you�re developing property, especially in something like an arts district. But I like where we are at the moment.�

Ten blocks south, in Paulus Hook, a quieter negotiation between activists, preservationists, and the high priests of the profit motive has been taking place. There, among the historic townhouses and riverfront walkways, residential construction has been unceasing ever since the commercial property boom of the late Nineties threw up majestic office towers east of Hudson Street. A few of the condominium developments along the northern edge of the Morris and Essex basin, such as the deluxe Liberty Terrace (25 Hudson Street), do attempt to capture some of the grandeur of the waterfront office towers. But most projects in Paulus Hook attempt to blend into the neighborhood, mimicking the rhythms and characteristics of the three-story nineteenth-century Italianate and Greek Revival architecture with wrought-iron, brickface, and antique fenestrations. Essex Commons (66 Essex Street) and the Grandview (93 Greene Street) aren�t brownstones, but they do their best to disguise that; the multi-unit buildings seem like natural extensions of these elegant blocks.

Developer Jeff Zak is a Paulus Hook native, and he�s brought some of the qualities of his historic neighborhood to an elaborate plan for an 80-acre parcel of land on the south side of Grand Street. Liberty Harbor North (333 Grand Street) is easily the most audacious project under development in Jersey City, and possibly one of the most remarkable in the entire country. Rather than developing a single building or an enclave, Zak and partner Peter Mocco are aiming to create an entire neighborhood � a seven-street, tightly constructed mixed-income and mixed-use community modeled on the historic districts that provide Downtown with so much of its unique character.

Liberty Harbor North will be developed in accordance with the principles of New Urbanism, a planning doctrine emphasizing walkability, architectural variety, interconnectivity, and human scale. �What it really is, is anti-suburbanism,� explains Zak. �New urbanists copy traditional urban patterns � ones that are proven facilitators of community.� The dimensions of the seven new city blocks planned for Liberty Harbor North are equivalent to those in Paulus Hook and Van Vorst Park. As befits a development founded on a belief in the efficacy of mass transit, the light rail will run down the middle of a central boulevard.

Never ones to cut corners, Zak and Mocco have brought in urban planner Andres Duany to oversee the development. Duany, one of the founders of the New Urbanism movement, is perhaps the most theoretically rigorous and conceptually sophisticated urban designer in the world. �(JC Planning chief) Bob Cotter recommended him to us in a fit of genius. We�d had the site for several years. The initial proposal featured large towers surrounded by car parks. It was cold and bleak. Everybody was stalled during the recession, and during that time, we saw how outdated the older plan had become.�

The new plan, according to Zak, involves targeting as many demographics as possible. Development will intensify and become denser toward the Morris and Essex basin; to the north, Liberty Harbor promises something for everybody. �We have plans for spaces for students, lofts for artists, for empty-nesters. We�re doing retail. When the market is there for office space, we�ll have room for that, too.� And when will this ambitious plan be realized? �At best, it�s a ten-year project�, confesses Zak, �and at the worst, it takes us twenty years.� But the developer goes on to explain how such flexibility is actually an asset. �We can react to the market absorption. If we�d built a gigantic tower, and it didn�t fill up, we�d be sitting on stories of unused space. But this way, we can build a hundred units at a time, and take a series of small bites. Eventually, we�re going to get there � to that total New Urbanist dream�.

While the Liberty Harbor North project might be the most elaborate local expression of that vision, elements of smart growth theory are apparent throughout Jersey City. Infill and adaptive reuse � the retrofitting of disused buildings to accommodate new projects � have become widely adopted techniques for jump-starting the rehabilitation of neighborhoods. On the crest of the palisade, The Beacon (50 Baldwin Avenue) is a 315-unit retooling of the former Jersey City Medical Center on Montgomery Street. The art deco design of the massive structure and the quirky dimensions of many of the apartments might bother some who demand uniformity and contemporary style, but the structure is bound to radiate personality to anybody with a little imagination.

In Lafayette, the rapidly redeveloping neighborhood just southwest of the Downtown (and one short stop away from Jersey Avenue on the light rail), adaptive reuse projects are transforming Communipaw Avenue and Monitor Street. At The Foundry at Liberty State Park (300 Communipaw), developers are rapidly converting a typesetting factory constructed in 1904 into a modern condominium complex. Around the corner, The Independent (125 Monitor Street) renovation will contribute another 163 units to the region�s sudden growth, and the spectacular, disused Whitlock Mills cordage factory will soon be reborn as a residence and retail center. Still further south, a world-class golf course and a massive condominium tower will eventually fill the open space between the southern terminus of Liberty State Park and the still-growing Port Libert� enclave.

And what of that perennial bugaboo: the property-price bubble? Many of the developers we spoke to confessed to some mild trepidation, and almost all expected the Hudson County property boom to slow. But even those who had their doubts about the stability of the national real estate market were still bullish about Jersey City. �The average income along the waterfront is now just as high as it is in Short Hills,� testifies Dan Frohwirth, chief of the city Economic Development Corporation. �And Governor Corzine is now saying that he wants development fast-tracking in the cities. With gasoline prices as high as they now are, we�ll probably see more and more people from the suburbs thinking about returning to urban centers. Remember that New Jersey is virtually built out, and the cache of Jersey City continues to increase. We haven�t seen the end of this yet.�

http://www.trismccall.net/notes_from_the_front_sftd.htm