Call it the Northern Renaissance. After years in the shadow of prominent projects on the waterfront and in the town’s southern interior, northeast Hoboken and southern Weehawken are seeing a flurry of mixed-use development that promises to solidify the Fourteenth Street corridor as a hub of its own.
364 high-end residential units are set to open this year, with 376 more units slated to follow in 2016. The new towers are capitalizing on enhanced options for fine dining and shopping in the neighborhood, as well as the ease of access to Manhattan provided by the Fourteenth Street ferry terminal and regular NJ Transit buses (though at least two of the buildings will still provide shuttle service to the Hoboken PATH station).
The projects are far from new—Toll Brothers’ condo building under construction at Fourteenth and Washington streets first received city approval in 1998, and remediation and Sandy-related flooding have tied up a new tower on the former Gulf station site just south of the Fourteenth Street Viaduct since 2011. However, the rebounding economy has opened the door for a crescendo of major developments nearing completion.
If and when the city generates and approves a redevelopment plan for the 30-acre North End Rehabilitation Area, which encompasses the industrial buildings and bus lots north of Fourteenth Street and west of Park Avenue, Hoboken’s northern interior could see even more new residential and commercial buildings.
After seeking bids for a North End planner last summer, the city refined its specifications and restarted the process with a new bid request this past March.
Park & Garden
For the first time in years, fences are down in the pedestrian mall north of Fourteenth Street on Garden Street, allowing a clear view of the 12-story Park & Garden complex that has been under construction for the last 22 months.
The 212-unit Bijou Properties building is bristling with technology, much of it aimed at achieving the highest standards of energy efficiency. Opening day is not expected until mid-summer, but Bijou Managing Partner Larry Bijou said he already knows the complex will secure LEED Gold status.
A cogeneration turbine atop the north tower will kick in at peak electricity hours, relieving much of Park & Garden’s burden on the local grid. Because it runs on natural gas, the turbine also generates power more cheaply than local utility PSE&G sells it, according to Bijou Senior Project Manager Metehan Akdag.
“Demand continues to surge in the New Jersey residential market for luxury apartments that… offer a premier location.”—Michael Sommer
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Park & Garden residents will also have access to a transit screen via their smartphones and the building lobby displaying the availability of every nearby form of transportation, from busses to Ubers and the new city bike share.
Rounding out the package of perks at Park & Garden are a dog cleaning room, a rooftop pool, a full gym, a package concierge a la Amazon Locker, and unobstructed views of Manhattan on the upper floors. For all of this, renters can expect to pay around $45 per square foot on average, according to Bijou Development Manager Dan Sudler.
Bijou is also well on its way to filling the 52,667 square feet of commercial space on Park & Garden’s ground floor. Leases have already been signed with Clifton Savings Bank and the Elysian Charter School, which hopes to relocate uptown in time for the 2015-16 school year, and the developer is in talks with a local medical group to open a clinic in the building. For the remaining 9,500 square feet of retail space, Bijou hopes to snag an organic food store.
Willow 14
A block away at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Willow Avenue, Advance Realty has completed the remediation of the former Gulf gas station and gas processing plant. After a “long and arduous cleanup” and the top-down construction of a four-level underground parking garage, Advance is ready for vertical work on a seven-story, 140-unit apartment building called Willow 14, according to Advance Managing Director Michael Sommer.
Building top-down was required because the site adjoins and structurally supports the Fourteenth Street Viaduct, which was fully reopened after a renovation last July. The Willow 14 site was also flooded twice, by Superstorm Sandy and by an unrelated water main break on Willow Avenue.
For the first three years of its remediation, neighbors of the Willow 14 site complained of strong odors in Facebook groups and posts on local blogs, prompting community meetings and visits from local health agencies. Advance Realty maintained that they followed all relevant laws regarding environmental cleanup.
Like Park & Garden, Willow 14’s luxury rentals will offer a raft of amenities like an outdoor pool deck and terrace, game room, community vegetable garden, and wine storage. Shuttles will take residents to the Hoboken PATH station, and the Fourteenth Street ferry terminal is a seven minute walk away.
The building will also have 22,000 square feet of retail space. Sommer said a commercial tenant had already signed a lease for the majority of the space, but declined to specify the business.
Sommer expects Willow 14’s apartments to command top-of-the-market rates, around $40 per square foot. “Demand continues to surge in the New Jersey residential market for luxury apartments that provide a complete array of high-end amenities and, at the same time, offer a premier location and convenient access to key transportation hubs,” he said in a prepared statement.
The building’s completion is slated for the first quarter of 2016.
1400 Hudson
Closer to the waterfront along the Fourteenth Street corridor, Toll Brothers has finished driving piles for the last stage of its Hoboken Cove Planned Unit Development, a 12-story, 236-unit condo building known as 1400 Hudson. The residential complex, which replaces a mostly vacant lot, will aim for a similar design and level of luxury as 1450 Washington across the street, said Toll Brothers Vice President Henry Waller, with three roof decks and an outdoor pool. According to Waller, the building should be complete by the end of 2016.
The building received initial city approvals in 1998, but was not pursued seriously until it was clear that Hoboken’s real estate market had fully recovered from the 2008 recession. The best indication for that may have been the sales at 1100 Maxwell Place, Toll Brothers’ newest completed condo building in the Maxwell House Planned Unit Development. The 12-story, 210-unit building had an interest list with over 1,000 names as early as May 2013, and is 80 percent sold after a year on the market, according to Waller. With such strong demand, Toll Brothers has already begun planning the final stage of the Maxwell House PUD as well.
The Gateway
Hoboken isn’t the only city seeing development action, though its gentrification is clearly driving the trends in adjacent municipalities. Just over the border in southern Weehawken, tucked between the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail tracks and the Park and Willow Avenue overpasses, a 152-unit luxury apartment building called The Gateway expects to open to tenants imminently, according to a representative of the developer.
The building has already begun leasing, and workers were putting on the final touches when The Hudson Reporter visited last week.
According to the representative, the building will offer unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline, a fourth floor pool deck, balconies, a gym and other attractive amenities.
According to a 2013 Hudson Reporter article, The Gateway’s developers, Scott and Tom Heagney, hope that their building will help to revitalize the Shades neighborhood of Weehawken and in particular the area beneath the overpasses connecting Weehawken and Hoboken, which have seen a lack of foot traffic since Gennaro’s, a popular local hangout and bar, closed in 2006.
North End
The remaining prize jewel of northern Hoboken is the North End Rehabilitation Area, a 30-acre zone that roughly covers the quadrant of northern Hoboken dominated by bus depots, industrial buildings, and the North Hudson Sewerage Authority’s water treatment plant.
The zone includes the three blocks at the center of Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s controversial claims that officials from the administration of Gov. Chris Christie pressured her to support a development project in exchange for the release of Sandy aid money. The project would have brought a high-rise office complex to the blocks, which are owned by The Rockefeller Group.
Zimmer’s accusations were folded into U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s investigation of Christie, but a recent Wall Street Journal story suggested that investigators could not find the evidence to back them up. The Christie officials in question have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
As for the zone, the city sought bids last July for a professional planner to develop a concept that, if approved, could rewrite the North End’s industrial zoning book and create a vibrant new mixed-use neighborhood.
A resolution awarding the North End planning contract to Maser Consulting, the same firm currently contracted to produce plans for the Southwest, Post Office, Neumann Leathers, and Western Edge redevelopment zones, was placed on the City Council agenda in October then pulled abruptly.
In response to questions via email this past month, Zimmer said she decided to start the bid process again from scratch after determining that the original bid request did not reflect what the city wanted in a plan.
“The proposals all came in very low,” wrote Zimmer. “After interviewing the consultants, it was decided that the scope of work needed to be expanded regarding transportation, storm water management, flood mitigation, and economic analysis.”
The revised bid specifications, a copy of which was obtained via an Open Public Records Act request, stated that the North End plan should “make recommendations for additional transit and transportation options to improve the accessibility of development” in light of existing road congestion in the area.
Public transit was a facet of the dispute over the Rockefeller Group properties, as the developer reached a 2013 non-binding memorandum of understanding with NJ Transit to build a Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stop near its property at 17th Street.
Last year, Zimmer noted that the city’s “master plan calls for the light rail station to be at 15th Street, as opposed to the secret agreement that was developed for 17th Street.”
The new North End bid request was issued in March, and five proposals were received before the deadline in mid-April, according to city business administrator Quentin Wiest.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.