More skyscrapers are coming to the Jersey City waterfront as developers seek to fill in the arts district portion of the city’s downtown with its tallest buildings ever.
Anchored by a 52-story mixed-use tower designed by architect Rem Koolhaas, the Powerhouse Arts District is a top area for development in a city already full of new projects.
The district is a formerly downtrodden industrial neighborhood named for the massive brick power station, built in 1908, which provided electricity to the Hudson Tubes, now known as the PATH trains. The area is between the Holland Tunnel and Exchange Place PATH station, and buildings there are mostly factories and warehouses. City officials, intent on creating a Tribeca-style arts district, have insisted that new developments contain living and work space for artists.
The Koolhaas building, being developed by the Athena Group and BLDG Management Co., is the flagship project of the Powerhouse District. Located at 111 First Street, the tower, designed as three boxes at alternating angles, will contain a hotel, condominiums, artist space and retail at street level. Ground will be broken on the project in 12 to 14 months.
Jersey City has attracted plenty of high-rise development in the last few years, as officials seek to create a skyline to mirror the larger version across the Hudson River in Manhattan.
“The way for this city to go is vertical,” Mayor Jerramiah Healy said when the Koolhaas project was unveiled at the end of February. “For better or worse, this city is taken up by tall high-rises. I think it is for the better.”
Another high-rise is planned across the street from the 111 First Street project. Long Island developer Bob Leher is planning a 40- to 50-story high-rise on top of the Butler Building warehouse at 350 Warren Street. Leher has owned the century-old warehouse for the last 14 years and plans to convert it to a high-rise, mixed-use tower. Ground will be broken in a year at the earliest, he said. While he has owned the building for a long while, he said the recent development boom in Jersey City has been the catalyst for his new development.
Leher said he plans condominiums on the top floors of the building, with the possibility of some rental apartments. Additionally, he is looking into including a hotel in the building, as well as ground-floor retail space. He is unsure of how much space will be set aside for artists.
“I think that it is what the area calls for, more high-rise and density,” Leher said. He cited a recent speech by Jersey City planning director Robert Cotter in which Cotter endorsed high-rise development on the waterfront and areas close to mass transportation.
Trump Plaza is a new 55-story tower being developed in the arts district by Donald Trump and Metro Homes. Tara Hogan, vice president of research at the Marketing Directors, the project’s sales agent, said the project is aimed at a population that would normally be drawn to the areas outside the city and that most of the buyers hail from the outer boroughs and Hudson County, with few from Manhattan.
“It’s a similar price point and a fabulous commute,” Hogan said. “At many times, it’s an easier commute than the outer boroughs are to Manhattan.”
Another project rising in the arts district is a $110 million, 33-story condominium one block west of the Hudson River by the Athena Group and GoldenTree InSite Partners. The project will have 10,500 square feet of retail, a 238-space parking garage and a brick-and-glass façde.
Pricing in the Powerhouse District is close to the rest of the Gold Coast. Prices are starting in the low $300,000s and exceeding the $1 million mark for larger units in new developments.
Jersey City prices tend to start slightly lower than prices in nearby Hoboken. Hoboken is the epicenter of most of Hudson County’s new residential development over the last decade, and prices have skyrocketed during much of that time.
Fields Development Company has recently completed the Waldo Lofts project in the Powerhouse District. The 12-story building contains 82 lofts and is designed to resemble the neighborhood’s namesake brick powerhouse.
Trendy Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Williamsburg are the model for Fields, which supports the arts district plan. “We are trying to bring the Brooklyn feel to Jersey City,” said Jim Caulfield, managing partner of Fields Development.
He said many people who look at Jersey City real estate also look in Brooklyn and choose Brooklyn because its neighborhoods have character, and new projects there offer designs and interior features similar to new development in Manhattan. Many of them seek to avoid buying “cookie cutter” apartments.
To attract buyers looking for apartments that stand out, Caulfield said, he’s looking to bring in unique interior features to the Waldo Lofts.
The Waldo Lofts have 82 units, of which 49 have been sold, and some residents have started moving in. Caulfield noted that seven of the units are set aside at an affordable rate for artists, and almost 5,000 square feet has been set aside for gallery exhibits. The gallery space includes the lobby, community areas and 1,000 feet of space in the elevator banks of each floor of the building.
Prices for the Waldo Lofts start at $250,000 for a studio.
Caulfield said that Fields Development has several other projects in the arts district. They include an 18-unit apartment building at 154 Steuben Street, which is being built jointly with TreeTop Development. The project has 12 two-bedroom units and six one-bedroom units. In addition, Fields Development is working with Toll Brothers on a new project in the Powerhouse District that Caulfield said he could not elaborate on.
The Powerhouse District is not the only designated arts development area in Hudson County. Hoboken has been moving ahead with several projects to combine live-work spaces for artists with gallery spaces. Unlike the high-rise nature of the Powerhouse District, the Hoboken developments are smaller-scale, in keeping with the nature of buildings in the mile-square city immediately north of Jersey City.