Living the high life in Jersey City
Sunday, July 15, 2007

By JENNIFER V. HUGHES
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

JERSEY CITY -- Audrey Ng, 3½, is eager to show off her new home, even though there are still contractors painting the walls pale blue and there are wires hanging from the ceiling, awaiting light fixtures.

"Hey, come on, guys!" she shouted as she escorted her father, Darryl, and her mother, Jane, carrying little sister, Bridget, 17 months.

While Audrey is most thrilled about the pink princess ceiling fan in her room, the truly spectacular features of the two-bedroom condominium are the floor-to-ceiling windows, which run the length of one wall, revealing the stunning Manhattan skyline.

"You can't get a view like that in New York. In New York, you get the million-dollar view of New Jersey," said Darryl Ng. The family bought the condo even though it is smaller than the apartment they were renting nearby.

The Ng family plan to move into their new condominium at the south tower of the Shore Condominium Residences at Newport this weekend, joining about 11,000 other residents who make this section of Jersey City their home.

Twenty years ago, Newport was essentially an abandoned rail yard. Today on the 400 acres, there are nine high-rise rental apartment buildings, two completed condominium buildings, the 1.2 million-square-foot Newport Centre Mall and 5 million square feet of office space -- with tenants such as J.P. Morgan Chase. There are about a dozen retail shops and restaurants, a playground, a health club and several private schools.

"In 1986, everyone thought this was a dumb idea," said Jamie LeFrak, the principal of the LeFrak Organization, which created Newport. The first apartments were marketed as a safe, affordable alternative to New York City, he said, adding that one of the big selling points of the early buildings was that they were gated.

"Now we're competing on the luxury market," he said, noting that the Shore condos have amenities such as a hot tub room with panoramic views of New York City.

Condominiums in the south tower of the Shore condos started going to contract in September 2005, and 200 units sold in 100 days, said Lynette Hamara, sales director for Coldwell Banker in Jersey City.

The north Shore tower started selling about a year ago, and while it is only two-thirds complete, it's about 90 percent sold.

Hamara said new residents range wildly from young singles to empty nesters who long to be closer to the city. Many are couples with young children. Residents come from as near as Hoboken and as far away as Cranbury and Manalapan, where Manhattan workers seek a shorter commute.

Buyers tell Hamara that Newport's biggest draw is its proximity to New York City and the variety of public transportation. PATH trains depart from the Pavonia Newport station for both midtown and the World Trade Center. NJ Transit's Light Rail passes through Newport, giving riders options north and south. There is also a ferry terminal where boats depart for midtown Manhattan.

Newport was developed jointly between the LeFrak Organization and Melvin Simon & Associates, which built the Newport Centre Mall in the mid 1980s. LeFrak said his grandfather and father looked at Newport as "a blank canvas."

"They liked the idea of creating their own city from scratch," he said.

One of the biggest initial problems was purchasing the land from the many different owners, most of whom were banks who had foreclosed on railroad property. After that, there were issues of environmental remediation. For example, the company paid about $20 million to remove a deposit of coal tar left behind on several plots of land. In total, the company has spent about $2.5 billion to develop Newport.

Sonia Maldonado, who heads the Newport Waterfront Association, a residents group, said Newport in one respect has become a victim of its own success. She noted that so many people have moved in recently that mass transit has gotten more crowded.

In 1995, the annual ridership out of the Pavonia/Newport station was 8,759, according to Port Authority statistics. By 2000, that number had jumped to 12,841 and in the first six months of 2007 it is already at 15,502.

The organization is hosting a meeting in the fall to address the issue.

Maldonado said residents are also anxiously awaiting a new park and playground that is planned for the northern edge of Newport. As the area becomes more attractive to families, she said more schools -- public and private -- will be needed. Many residents are frustrated with how long it is taking for a planned waterfront walkway from Newport to Hoboken to be completed.

Maldonado came to the area a decade ago, moving out of her co-op at Park Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan. She planned to stay only about a year when she first moved in to a rental apartment at the George Washington building.

"At that time there was a lot of grass," she said, laughing. "It was no longer just the tracks -- there were some buildings, but it was still different than it is today."

Maldonado said she liked the quiet lifestyle of Newport.

"It was calmer than Manhattan," she said. "It was very, very safe -- I loved that."

For many years she worked in Manhattan; recently she's taken a job as a tax professional down the street. Not long ago she moved to another Newport rental building, The East Hampton.

"There is nothing quite as nice as sitting on a bench on the waterfront and just relaxing ... watching the ships sail through on the Hudson," she said.

Ng is not only a Newport resident, he's also a business owner as the proprietor of a shop, Canis Minor, which is around the corner from the Shore condos and carries dog-related items, from food to swanky outfits. He has just opened a similar store in Tribeca called Pet Bar South, and like many Newport residents, he said the quick commute was a big factor in his decision to buy.

"That was by far the number one reason -- there is no other place that is so close to all those transportation hubs," he said.

Another reason was price. Prices in Newport are comparable to other developments on the Jersey side of the Hudson River, said Scott Selleck, broker and principal of New Jersey Gold Coast Real Estate. And, of course, the prices pale in comparison with Manhattan, where the average price for condos and co-ops tops $1 million.

While the vast majority of residents in Newport are renters, LeFrak said ownership is key to Newport's survival. For one, he said owners are important because they are more likely to be voters, and local politicians pay more heed to an area when constituents live there. Secondly, he said surveys have found that 80 percent of renters who leave do so to buy elsewhere.

LeFrak said he wants to persuade them to stay, and is planning accordingly.

"We will be bringing in a lot of family-oriented stuff," he said, noting that a skating rink should be opened soon and child-friendly shops and stores are in the works.

Sidebar....

Newport by the numbers

•  3,476 units of rental apartments, all of which are occupied. There are 659 condos -- all of which are sold with another 220 to be finished by the end of the year.

•  4,500 more residential units are planned for the next 10 years.

•  Studio apartments rent for about $1,700, while a two-bedroom can go for $2,500 to $3,700.

•  A one-bedroom condo at the Shore Condominium Residences sells for about $500,000, while a three-bedroom duplex costs about $846,000. The most expensive unit in the development sold for about $1.7 million.

•  Maintenance fees for Shore condos range from about $430 to $1,100, and service charges, which are payments in lieu of taxes, cost between $600 and $1,300.