Kushner Companies Facing Stop-Work Orders in Jersey City

It took years of litigation for Kushner Companies to get The Journal — formerly known as One Journal Square — off the ground in Jersey City. The road to completion just got a little bit longer.

Last week, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development issued stop-work orders to a trio of contractors working on the project, JerseyDigs reported. MJQ Drywall, 506 Painting and Exxon Development were cited for a variety of issues, including worker misclassification, unpaid and late wages, overtime rate violations and failing to provide earned sick leave.

Last year, dozens of concrete workers on the project reportedly went weeks without pay. The regional branch of the Laborers’ International Union of North America filed claims for more than 70 workers with NJDOL, which remain ongoing; foremen and supervisors allegedly told workers, upon a site visit by NJDOL investigators, that the visitors were actually from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to scare workers from talking.

The groundbreaking of the project took place three years ago, almost to the day. The project is across the street from the Journal Square PATH Station and includes two residential rental towers. The nearly $1 billion project includes 1,723 apartments and 40,000 square feet of retail, taken by Target.

Kushner and then-partner KABR Group bought the site in 2015 for $27 million; it had sat vacant since 2009 after previous plans for two towers failed to advance.

A May 2017 bid for $150 million in construction financing from EB-5 investors raised conflict of interest concerns because of the family’s connections to the Trump administration. WeWork also quietly backed out of an agreement to anchor the project, where it had planned to take 110,000 square feet.

Jersey City also rejected Kushner’s application for a 30-year tax abatement and threatened to derail the project, accusing the developer of missing deadlines and failing to pay municipal fees. Kushner sued the city, alleging “anti-Trump bias” guided the mayor.

The parties settled in October 2020 and resumed the project, which KABR promptly left. Pre-leasing on residential units — with two free months of rent available — is set to begin shortly, though it’s unclear how the completion date will be affected by the stop-work orders.

— Holden Walter-Warner