The real estate turnaround in Hudson County has been remarkable in the last few years. This year saw plans for towers that stretched as high as 875 feet, new train lines, a host of new hotels and apartments, and a giddy sense that it isn’t going to stop any time soon.
“When we started in 1985,” said former Jersey City planner and now consultant Tom Leane this fall, “there were packs of wild dogs at Newport.”
The wild dogs are gone at Newport, the 600 acres of Samuel J. LeFrak-owned property on the Jersey City waterfront. On the ancient rail yards now stand a mall, luxury high rises and new office towers. This year, Newport added Chase Manhattan as a tenant and announced that Macy’s will take a spot in the Newport Centre Mall.
Commercial development sprouted all along the Jersey City waterfront. At Exchange Place, the remaining parcels of land where the Colgate Toothpaste factory once stood will be the new homes of Wall Street migrants. Goldman Sachs will be making the swim across the Hudson with an 875-foot tower. The city sealed the deal this past year.
Meanwhile, Hoboken has attracted venerable New York publisher Wiley & Sons to its southern waterfront. The nearly 200-year old company will bring hundreds of employees to two 13-story waterfront towers. And a few blocks south, construction has begun on a 13-story apartment building. In Secaucus, the Allied Junction development on top of a proposed train transfer station will add four million square feet of office space, and developers and officials see the site as an anchor point and center for continued development.
In North Bergen, the Columbia Park retail development opened this year with restaurants and chain department stores. A stadium-style movie theater opened there this summer.
Hotel Hudson County
These new businesses have had a trickle-down effect for the rest of the region. The most noticeable is the proliferation of hotels.
In November, a 189-room Marriott Courtyard opened on Washington Blvd. in Jersey City. In the next decade, Newport hopes to add 1,200 rooms in other hotel projects.
Candlewood Suites is slated to open in January between the Newport and Exchange Place PATH stations, and two blocks southeast of the Doubletree Club. Hyatt Regency started construction on Exchange Place pier next to the PATH station and is slated for a 2002 opening.
In Hoboken, a 350-room hotel is planned for the South Waterfront development.
Thirteen hotels stand in Secaucus, the hotel capital of Hudson County. One more is planned, and the Hilton Gardens is now being constructed on the site of the old Howard Johnson.
Trains, ferries etc., etc.
The first Hudson-Bergen Light Rail trains began running this year. The trains started rolling out of 34th Street in Bayonne to Exchange Place in Jersey City this spring. Unfortunately, the number of riders was discouragingly low, even with special fare programs and free park-and-ride incentives from NJ Transit. Of late, the system has seen a rise in use. A Newport stop opened in November, and crews are working on the line’s progress into Hoboken, slated for a 2002 opening.
The line will eventually run up to the Vince Lombardi Turnpike rest stop in Ridgefield, in Bergen County.
Some residents, especially in the Lafayette and Paulus Hook sections of Jersey City, have complained about honking, dinging, and squealing that’s come with the new trolley system, which trundles within feet of some homes. NJ Transit vowed to curb the noise, but residents say it has not gotten much better. That other transit system, PATH, has seen spikes in its ridership, up 10 percent in the first six months of this year. The figure represents the highest jump since 1962. When many commuters have complained about crammed cars, the Port Authority responded by shortening time between trains during rush hour, and increasing stops (by eliminating express trains).
The surge in PATH may mean good news for ferries. Jersey City boasts four terminals, Weehawken three and Hoboken one. The newly renovated Liberty Harbor Ferry terminal features an indoor and tented outdoor waiting room. NY Waterway operates the ferries between the harbor and Manhattan’s World Financial center from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the $450 million Allied Junction/Secaucus Transfer construction continues. The transfer station will permit commuters to transfer from the Main, Bergen County, Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines to the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line, and Midtown Direct service, as well as Amtrak trains traveling on the Northeast Corridor.
The construction is two thirds of the way completed, and the trains may even start running by the end of the coming year.
Manhattanites flee, find Hudson County cheap
Million-dollar Weehawken homes? Welcome to Hudson County real estate, Y2K-style. Jersey City condos that sold for under $100,000 a year ago are now $170,000. People who wouldn’t have given a second thought to renting in Jersey City Heights and the west side of Hoboken a few years ago are now buying homes there.
Though recent figures suggest the heated residential market may have leveled off somewhat, it’s still a seller’s market.
“I’ve been doing residential real estate in the area for the last 15 years,” said Barbara Tulko, a Realtor based in Weehawken. “2000 has been my best year ever.”
Construction and sales continued on major residential waterfront projects in Hoboken and West New York. In Weehawken, the Planning Board approved the second phase of the proposed $500 million Roseland waterfront development project.
Many agree that should a recession hit, the residential market will be the first to go down, while the current commercial construction will continue to blossom for the next two to three years. That means the area won’t be as bad off as in the early ’90s, when vacant buildings dotted the landscape.
“If the economy does slow down,” said James W. Hughes, Dean of the public policy school at Rutgers University, “we’re probably not going to be as bad off as last time.”