With 12 million square feet of office space lost in the World Trade Center collapse last week, there will be a great need for replacement space – particularly in Jersey City’s financial district directly across the river.
Several Manhattan financial firms already use branch and back offices in Jersey City, where there are a number of new commercial buildings approved or under construction. There are also two new office towers planned further north on the Hoboken waterfront.
Jeffrey Kaplowitz, the chair of the Jersey City Planning Board and a real estate broker for Century 21 in Jersey City, seemed uncomfortable with making predictions so soon after the tragedy, but said last week that there probably would be a great interest in Jersey City’s commercial projects in the wake of the crisis.
"People will be looking for space to operate businesses," Kaplowitz said. "If there’s space available in Jersey City, they’re definitely going to occupy it. There’s the Charles Schwab building, and half of that will be leased out. That [building will have] a million square feet downtown, so there is space available. Some of this won’t be available until six to nine months from now."
In addition, Merrill Lynch, which has offices at financial centers in New York and Jersey City, had gotten approvals for 1.2 million square feet in Jersey City to be completed in 2005, but had postponed construction because of the downturn in the economy. If plans are resumed, the building will be 675 feet high and dwarfed only by its future neighbor – the 875-foot Goldman Sachs building.
"Everything is predicated on how quickly New York can recover," Kaplowitz said. "Jersey City is directly related to the health of New York City."
On Hoboken’s south waterfront, SJP Properties in Parsippany is in the process of constructing two 13-story office buildings with 550,000 square feet each. Wiley Publishing of Manhattan will take seven floors in the first building, representing 400,000 square feet. A banking firm also has leased 37,000 square feet.
In North Bergen, more than 500,000 square feet of commercial space are available at a two-story warehouse/office complex on 91st Street that originally was to host a failing dot-com. A subleasing company was retained in June to sublet the space, on which the company had spent $50 million in renovations. The building takes up four city blocks.
Some WTC employees went back to work
Meanwhile, many Hudson residents, even those who actually had worked in the World Trade Center, resumed their jobs as early as Wednesday morning.
"Bill," a Hoboken resident who had escaped from the Twin Towers, expected to go back to work the next day – at a "contingency center" in New Jersey.
Many of the firms in the World Trade Center had these centers placed throughout the metropolitan area in case of emergency. "These are essentially satellite offices," said the resident, who didn’t want his real name published. "They can connect to the undamaged corporate facilities and vendors."
Typically, they contain rooms full of computers and phones. Bill’s firm, like many, runs annual drills to see if employees can make it into the contingency center and if the equipment is working.
"They’re located on different power grids and different telephone systems, so that if, say, New York Telephone isn’t working, we might be using [another company]," he said, adding that the data from his company is backed up routinely and can be accessed from the center.
Bill declined, for security reasons, to say where in New Jersey his center was. He said most of them are located in the metropolitan area, while some can be situated as far away as Los Angeles. In that case, he said, "Other people would pick up the load or fly out."
Hudson residents who work elsewhere in New York went into their offices Wednesday and Thursday morning, despite New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s request that people stay home that day if they didn’t need to come into the city.
Most of those interviewed said that their jobs would involve dealing with issues related to the tragedy.
John Chu of Hoboken coordinates materials and equipment for the New York Housing Authority. Wednesday morning, on his way to the 14th Street ferry, he said, "I have to deal with the materials and make sure the police and fire departments have what they need, whether it be goggles … or axes, hammers, helmets."
Chu said that on the day of the tragedy there were no serious problems at the Housing Authority that he knew of, but people called to ask questions.
Theresa Howard, a Hoboken resident who writes for USA Today, was on her way into Manhattan Wednesday to continue her coverage of the tragedy. She said that the morning before, when she first started covering it at the Hoboken PATH terminal, she didn’t realize how big the story was going to get.
"Joe," a Hobokenite who also requested anonymity, was on his way to work at New York Life, the insurance company on 26th Street.
"I’m getting married Sunday," he said. "I have a lot of work to do before then."