February 22, 2007
-- THERE'S a certain type of New Yorker who'd never move to
These people can be
forgiven for having never heard of the
A good 30 percent
cheaper than most of Manhattan and just minutes away on the PATH from either
Midtown or Wall Street, the city began its turnaround in the mid-1980s, as
residential and office buildings started popping up along its waterfront.
Today, high-rises line the river and the streets are busy with young
professionals.
Twenty years ago,
it took a certain daring to head over the
In fact, buyers
willing to look a little further inland will find some of
Sitting atop the
Palisades Ridge, the project offers dramatic views of the waterfront and
One
drawback to the development? The
five-minute shuttle ride to the PATH train. But with apartments going for less
than $500 a square foot, the development isn't just inexpensive by
"We wanted to
offer units where a one-bedroom in our complex would cost about what a studio
would in other
That's the
advantage, of course, of striking out for less-developed territory - the chance
to snag a deal. Josh Levitt recently pulled the
trigger on a one-bedroom unit in the new Grove Pointe development (with 67
condos and 458 rental units) by the Grove Street PATH station. With prices
running $650 to $700 per square foot, and other buildings like the Costas Kondylis-designed rental
tower 50
"When you buy
something as an investment, you want to get it at a little bit of a discount,"
says Levitt, who's been renting in
"These areas
aren't perfect yet. You still have the 99-cent store around the corner, you still have the tattoo parlor. But when you see
the amount of investment going on here, the value and opportunity is
there."
Other projects -
like Exeter Properties' condo conversion of Hamilton Park's Civil War-era St.
Francis Hospital complex and Harwood Properties' plans to build more than 1,000
high-rise residential units in long moribund Journal Square - similarly speak
to the fact that inland Jersey City is viable.
Of course, there's
still plenty happening down by the river. Among the largest new projects is
Peter Mocco's
Donna McIntosh,
who, with her husband, Timothy, recently purchased a brownstone in the
development, sees it as a lower-key alternative to the
"What I like
is that [
"It's a more
human scale, a human feel, as opposed to being isolated in some space station -
a tower that's 40 stories in the air," Mocco
says, comparing his development to the high-rises that have characterized
growth in downtown
Fans of the
space-station aesthetic shouldn't fret, though; there's no shortage of more
vertically inclined developments. Perhaps most dramatically, Metro Homes and
The Trump Organization are still at work on Trump Plaza Jersey City's two
towers. And at
New waterfront
properties are also rising in the city's
Primarily a
developer of rental buildings, Lefrak recently created the Shore Condominium.
Consisting of two towers offering 217 and 221 one-, two- and three-bedroom
units, the project's first building sold out in four months. The second
building had, at last count, eight units left. Given sales figures like this,
fears of a
"We all have
to be concerned that eventually there's going to be too much product," he
says. "It just doesn't look like, with what's happening economically and
locally, we're at that point yet."
So expect more
potential buyers hopping on the PATH to take a look.
"
On the market
The Beacon (1-BR, $375K and up)
www.thebeaconjc.com
Grove Pointe (1-BR, $495K and up)
www.grovepointecondos.com
www.libertyharbor.com
Shore Condo (1-BR, $430K and up)
www.theshoreatnewport.com
www.njtrump.com