Hudson Reporter Archive

The man who built Exchange Place

Banker Thomas J. Stanton refused to give up on Jersey City, even during the times when the city seemed to be falling apart.
Those who knew him best said he had a vision of Hudson County as a thriving business and residential community. And largely because of this vision, the Gold Coast, as people know it today, became a reality.
In 1999, a few years after he finally retired from First National Bank of Jersey City, the City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that would have named the area around Exchange Place the Thomas J. Stanton Plaza, a fitting tribute to a man who perhaps did more to start the revitalization of Jersey City’s waterfront than any other single individual.
Unfortunately, according to his son Charles Stanton, “Nothing was ever done to implement it.”
“First Jersey was basically responsible for the development of three of the four corners of Exchange Place and Montgomery,” Charles Stanton said. “One Exchange, 2 Montgomery built as bank headquarters in 1969, and its final headquarters in 1988 at 10 Exchange (the green glass tower).”
Stanton said he would love for the current City Council to honor the original ordinance and name the Exchange Place Plaza after his father.
The city did post a commemorative street sign at the corner of Montgomery and Exchange, but Charles Stanton has talked with Ward E Councilwoman Candice Osborne and other city officials, hoping to get a more substantial plaque installed in the area.

History

According to his obituary in the New York Times, Stanton was a Jersey City banker who helped turn his hometown’s waterfront “from a moldering stretch of rotten piers and rusty rail yards into a sleek corporate district that came to be known as the Gold Coast.”

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“First Jersey was basically responsible for the development of three of the four corners of Exchange Place and Montgomery.” – Charles Stanton
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For Charles Stanton, his father’s work in Jersey City came back into focus last August when the site of the former First National Bank of Jersey City began negotiations that would transform the waterfront’s first high rise business building into a 258-room hotel.

A Jersey City native

Former governor Thomas Kean once called Thomas J. Stanton, “a dream maker.” He was born and raised in Jersey City. In 1954, he began his long banking career there when he joined First Jersey as a business loan officer. Within six years, he was promoted to vice president and in 1967, at the age of 39 he became president and chief executive officer.
Stanton was also chairman and chief executive officer of National Westminster Bank NJ (which merged with First National Bank in the 1980s).
Over the next two years, he moved the bank to the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City’s first newly commercial building in ten years. This became the foundation of the waterfront redevelopment, and represented the bank’s commitment to support the resurrection of Jersey City as an economic city.
“The bank was a big supporter of the original construction of the J. Owen Grundy pier which was also built in the mid-1980s. The bank also underwrote Grundy’s 1976 book, ‘The History of Jersey City,’” Charles Stanton said.
Banker Stanton refused to let Jersey City die. He fought for the restoration of brownstones, not just in Jersey City, but in Hoboken. He became personally involved in a number of civic improvement projects in Jersey City and in Hudson County.
First National became an economic engine for rebirth of the Gold Coast when many other bankers fled for what they saw as greener pastures elsewhere in the state.
The bank moved to Exchange Place into what was then the tallest building in the state.
“I worked there as a kid with my father,” Charles Stanton said. “He retired a couple of year after it was acquired by NatWest.”
Stanton retired from the bank in 1990, but remained active. He was the driving force behind the development and construction of Liberty Science Center. He served as board chairman for the center from 1989 to 1993
“I fondly remember the WBGO lunch time summer jazz series concerts on the pier in the 1980s – a First Jersey-sponsored initiative,” Charles Stanton said. “The bank was a big contributor to WBGO, too.”
His father served as chairman of the Executive Committee for the New Jersey Bankers Association, and as a member of the American Bankers Association, he served as chairman of the Urban and Community Affairs Committee.
He also served as director and treasurer of the New Jersey Bankers Association, and director of the Hudson County and Newark Chamber of Commerce, as well as president and director of the Jersey City Chamber of Commerce.

An advocate for education

Stanton sat on the boards of St. Peter’s College, Jersey City State College and Stevens Institute of Technology. He served on the boards of several local hospitals, as well as the Liberty State Park Development Corporation.
In acknowledging his contributions, the City Council in 1999 noted that Stanton stayed in Jersey City when many other bankers fled to the suburbs, and was significantly responsible for the early development of the Gold Coast, in particular, the Exchange Place area.
But he also supported affordable housing, gave generously to African-American churches, and gave to local schools.
In fact, he often sought public support for education, and his bank was deeply involved in job training programs.
“He’s a man of integrity and a man of vision,” former Rep. Frank Guarini said at the time of Stanton’s retirement.
His bank became one of the county’s largest employers, especially in Jersey City, where nearly the bank employed nearly 1,000 people, and at the peak of the bank’s success it employed more than 4,000 people statewide.
Stanton won honors from governments and associations local and international. He received the New Jersey Pride Governor’s Award as well as the Recognition Award for Community Service from then-President Ronald Reagan. He received recognition from religious institutions such as the Archdiocese of Newark for his educational work, as well as the State of Israel Peace Medal from the nation of Israel.
He was recognized by organizations as diverse at the National Conference of Christian and Jews, the Urban League, to the Boys Scouts and the New Jersey Business Association.
But Thomas Stanton always remembered something that his father taught him: it was his responsibility to give back to his community.

Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.

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