Planned Community in N.J. Seeks To Poach New Yorkers

By Elizabeth Solomont
Special to the Sun
June 7, 2007

Manhattanites feeling crowded in their closet-size apartments should try living in New Jersey, a new ad campaign airing in New York City suggests.

Featuring a fictional couple, Bob and Cindy, who are forced to live in a closet because of soaring real estate prices, the ads tout Newport, N.J., a planned community developed by the LeFrak Organization, which spent an estimated $400,000 on the campaign.

The ads first aired Monday on the cable news station NY1 and depict Bob and Cindy in five scenarios, including one in which Cindy shares gossip from their son's preschool while pouring coffee … in the closet. As the couple emerges from the cramped space into a bedroom belonging to Bob's parents, Bob's father calls out from bed to remind them that rent is due. "Tired of living in a closet?" a voice-over asks. "Get more out of New York. Move to New Jersey."

"We all live it. The scripts came out of our families, to a certain extent," a co-producer of the ad and creative director at Woods Witt Dealy & Sons, Harry Woods, said.

A spokesman for LeFrak, Ed Cortese, said the 30-second spots would run for the next month on NY1, SportsNet New York, and the Web site Newportnj.com. In addition, banner ads will appear on the Web logs Gawker, UrbanBaby, and Curbed.

Situated across the river from the World Financial Center, Newport is a mixed-use community occupying 600 acres along the Hudson River. Construction began in 1986, and today the community has 4,000 rental apartments, 7 million square feet of office space, and 2 million square feet of retail space.

A typical two-bedroom rental apartment costs $2,600 a month, while a three-bedroom duplex in one of the community's recently completed condos starts at $846,000.

Mr. Cortese said the ads were aimed at "sophisticated New Yorkers" age 20 to 45, who are likely married and earn "decent" incomes.

Young couples and new graduates are being priced out of affordable apartments in Manhattan, Mr. Cortese said. "One-bedrooms are now $3,000 and you're overlooking somebody's tenement, whereas in New Jersey, you've got these big beautiful buildings with all these amenities at your doorstep," he said.

IRS tax return filings indicate that 22,197 households moved to New Jersey from the five boroughs between 2005 and 2006.

"The Manhattan market is stronger than the suburban market right now, so frankly, this is a great time to cash out in Manhattan and move to the 'burbs," the senior vice president of Foxtons, Les Newlands, said. "One of the hottest areas has been the Gold Coast of Hudson County," he said.

The mayor of Jersey City, Jerramiah Healy, said he views New York City as his city's "very large sibling." But Jersey City itself "has so many things to offer," he said, citing declining crime rates, access to public transportation, and park space. "That's why people are flocking here."