Toll Brothers is moving ahead with a 38-story apartment building in Jersey City, putting an end to the battle to keep the project from being developed in a local arts district, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The first phase of Provost Square is a $185 million, 420-unit project that Toll will break ground on this spring with an eye toward a 2015 move-in date. The complete project, located in Jersey City’s Powerhouse Arts District, will eventually have 925 condo and rental units, retail space, a 550-seat Performing Arts Space And A Pedestrian Plaza.
Toll first sought to build the development in 2006, but had to counter a lawsuit to block the project brought by the Powerhouse Arts District Neighborhood Association, which argued that the project would mar the area’s character. Toll won the right to build the project in 2011, and has since been steadily finalizing plans.
The neighborhood association couldn’t be reached by the Journal for comment.
Toll’s decision to build in Jersey City is an indication that the area is increasingly being perceived as an extension of New York City. At the end of last year, Jersey City’s average asking rent was $2,721 a unit, a 5 percent year-over-year increase, according to Reis Inc. The area currently has 970 units under construction, with another 4,778 in the pipeline, excluding Toll’s project.
“The Jersey City market is a very strong market,” Fred Cooper, Toll’s senior vice president of finance and investor relations, told the Journal. “We think the timing is great.” [WSJ] —Hiten Samtani