Jersey City Rising

[steveikin]

Here is an article that appeared in the Spring 1986 issue of St Peter's College's quarterly magazine regarding the future of the JC waterfront development. Interesting to compare that vision with what has taken place.

Excellent blast-from-the-past stuff Radiohead. Good job.

[JCMAN320]

Yes radiohead great job yet again! That Central Park rendering must be the new park being built in the Northwest quandrant of Newport.

As for Alexander Hamilton and the 3 for mayors of NY that saw JC as a future great city, thank you for those foresights wherever you are. May have taken JC a while and it still isn't done yet, but it is certainly growing into a great city.

I love that quote even though it's not finished. He really said "One day a great city will rise on the west bank of the Hudson River, that city shall be called the City of Jersey."

[JCMAN320]

In the Region | New Jersey
High Altitude, Higher Price


Metrovest
WEALTHY WELCOME The lobby of the Beacon, where a penthouse just sold for $2.3 million.

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: February 11, 2007

THERE is a wealth of high-end, high-rise condominium units coming on the market along the Jersey “Gold Coast” — and purchase prices are soaring to new heights.

Last week, a two-story penthouse at the Beacon, the former Jersey City Medical Center complex that is being converted to condominiums, set a record for a high-rise apartment in Jersey City when a purchase contract was signed for $2.3 million.

“This is indeed a leap,” said Jacqueline Urgo, executive vice president of the Marketing Directors, which is handling sales. She said that her agency had overseen sales at Liberty Terrace, the last high-rise to break price barriers in Jersey City, and that the highest purchase price there had been $1.45 million.

Most Liberty Terrace units were sold by September, though, said Ms. Urgo — and she sees the market for expensive condos with riverfront views as having picked up significantly since then.

At the 55-story Trump Plaza, now under construction in Jersey City, more than 200 contracts for condos have been signed since sales started in October. Asking prices for apartments there range from $400,000 to around $2.5 million for the penthouse, which has not yet been sold.

The Beacon, a $350 million conversion of eight Art Deco structures set on a hill in Jersey City’s downtown, has until now been marketed as a lower-cost alternative to waterfront high-rises. Studio units on low floors of the first two Beacon buildings, which are to open this spring, sold for $325,000.

A total of 265 units, out of 315 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom condos in the first two buildings, have sold, according to the developer, Metrovest Equities, based in Manhattan. Ultimately, Metrovest plans to create 1,200 condos and rental units at the Beacon complex.

The penthouse that sold is now taking shape on the 20th and 21st floors of the Beacon’s Capitol building. It will offer three bedrooms, three full and two half baths, a library, a den, a breakfast room and a private interior elevator, with a total of 3,195 square feet of interior space. In addition, the penthouse has three terraces covering 2,100 square feet, facing north, southeast and west, with views of the full Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

“This is some apartment,” said George Filopoulos, Metrovest’s president. “We’ve tried to take advantage of all the unique architectural features these buildings offer, and the quirks in this one make for a magnificent home.”

More than 100 different designs have been developed for units at the Capitol and the Rialto, the other Beacon building now under construction. The Rialto penthouse unit is being marketed, as are the two condos below the penthouse at the Capitol.

Just to the north, in Hoboken, where prices have generally tracked higher than in Jersey City, a record is certain to be set whenever contracts are signed for two penthouse condos atop the W Hotel, now being built beside the Hudson River.

The asking price for those units — which come with full W Hotel service — is $4.4 million, according to the developer, Michael Barry of the Hoboken-based Applied Development Company. He said that there had been a number of “serious lookers” and that he expected both to sell well before completion of the hotel building in the summer of 2008.

Prices for the W condos are roughly $1,000 per square foot — around $300 per square foot more than the typical new-construction high-rise unit gets in Hoboken — according to the Marketing Directors, which is handling W’s sales as well.

But, Ms. Urgo noted, the W will provide exceptional service and ambience for Hoboken, with a sleek design by the Manhattan architecture firm of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, as well as concierge service, a restaurant and shopping area, the W Bliss spa, an upstairs bar and a stunning lobby with a street-level bar.

There will be nine floors of condos with two, three or four bedrooms atop the hotel — a total of 38 units — with asking prices starting at $1.5 million. Mr. Barry said 32 were already under contract.

The four-bedroom penthouses each provide 4,250 square feet of space, with unobstructed wraparound views of New York City from their 25th floor perch. Each has floor-to-ceiling windows, a den and a fitness room, the developer said.

Three three-bedroom units on the floor below have been sold for $2.6 million, which may be a record for high-rise units in Hoboken, according to the Marketing Directors.

Another candidate to challenge Hoboken’s record might be Maxwell Place, where the first of two riverfront buildings recently opened to its first occupants, but where closing prices have not yet been reported. A second building is being marketed, although construction has not started. Several large two-bedroom units on upper floors of the second building have asking prices in the $2 million range.

The W and Maxwell Place have been attracting buyers from Manhattan and New Jersey in roughly equal numbers, according to Applied and the Pinnacle Companies, the builder of Maxwell Place.

Another huge development in Jersey City, the Liberty Harbor project, which covers 28 city blocks, will have 667 units coming on the market this year and next, with an eventual 7,000 to 10,000 units planned at a site adjacent to the Paulus Hook neighborhood. Right now, the project has some four- and five-bedroom town homes on the market, at prices of $1.5 million to $1.66 million.

At Port Liberte in Jersey City, several lavish town homes at the water’s edge are up for resale at prices in excess of $2 million, including one for $2.99 million. And in Hoboken, two grand three-story brownstones are listed at $2.75 million and $3 million.

“The high-rise market is different, though,” Mr. Filopoulos noted. “We’re really excited about setting a record with the Beacon that signifies a real change in the high-rise picture in Jersey City.”

As with the W, he said, the amenities are crucial to the value of the condos.

The Rialto and Capitol buildings are joined by a two-story lobby with a 24-hour doorman and concierge. Residents will also be provided valet parking, shuttle service to PATH trains and ferry stations, and access to a 25,000-square-foot “lifestyle and fitness” center with a full-time staff. Club Aqua, as the center is called, is to feature an indoor pool, gym, lounge with hot tubs, his and hers saunas and steam rooms, a “social sauna,” treatment rooms, a yoga studio, a juice bar, a screening room and a children’s playroom.

Beacon residents will also have access to a restored Art Deco theater that will be available for events, a catering kitchen and a rooftop sundeck for grilling, dining and lounging, Mr. Filopoulos said. “Additional spaces are being brought back to mint condition to be used as poker rooms, a reading gallery and a billiards hall,” he added.

A “town center” now under construction will have a rooftop bar-restaurant, shops, a market, a prekindergarten and day-care facility, a movie theater and an art gallery.

[tbal]

WOW! That lobby looks amazing!

Anyway, in case you've been wondering, it looks like work at 154-158 Steuben Street has been going on for at least a few weeks now (notice that Morgan Lighthouse is going to hug halfway around it):

[LincolnParkResident]

Just last night talked to someone originally part of the development team of architects for the site, and the plan was for 20 years. Not 5 or 10 as they are saying now.

Peter Mocco, as I am sure most realize, he is using mainly non-union construction workers, and well he just let go 15 of them this week. The individual said there is practically no one who is do construction on the site now. And not a single unit there has closed yet. They were suppose to start closing in December 2006, and the person said, more realistic would be around May 2007 or after that with Peter Mocco and his changes, that is 6 months.....and but the builder got the law change from around 6 month to now 2 years. To get that done, with the continuous changes Peter Mocco likes to do, soon he will have to hire union labor. And one can just see when they come in, they will double or triple their normal pay rates to get even with him.

The individuals at the sales center were saying the electrical and plumbing was in, in October, but the person said none of it truely in until January 2007, for a limited amount of the units.

[LincolnParkResident]

http://www.hobokenx.com/html/modules...d=7471&forum=8

looking good they are selling their homes here....unlike some other developers it sounds.

[LincolnParkResident]

http://www.tollbrothers.com/homesear..._20070208.html


Toll Brothers Press Release February 8, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Frederick N. Cooper
fcooper@tollbrothersinc.com
(215) 938-8312
Joseph R. Sicree
jsicree@tollbrothersinc.com
(215) 938-8045

TOLL BROTHERS REPORTS 1ST QTR 2007 PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR REVENUES, BACKLOG AND CONTRACTS

Horsham, PA, February 8, 2007 -- Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE:TOL) (www.tollbrothers.com), the nation’s leading builder of luxury homes, today reported preliminary unaudited results for home building revenues, contracts and backlog for its first quarter ended January 31, 2007. The Company will announce final totals when it releases first-quarter earnings results on February 22, 2007.

FY 2007’s first-quarter home building revenues were approximately $1.09 billion, a decline of 19% compared to the first-quarter record of $1.34 billion in FY 2006. FY 2007’s first-quarter-end backlog was approximately $4.15 billion, a decline of 30% compared to the first-quarter record of $5.95 billion in FY 2006.

FY 2007’s first-quarter net signed contracts were approximately $749 million, a decline of 34% compared to FY 2006’s first-quarter total of $1.14 billion. The Company signed 1,463 gross contracts (before cancellations) in FY 2007’s first quarter, a 14% decline from the 1,695 signed in FY 2006’s first quarter. Net of cancellations, first quarter contracts totaled 1,027 units, down 33% from 1,544 units in the first quarter of FY 2006.


Robert I. Toll, chairman and chief executive officer, stated: “It appears that the pace of cancellations is starting to abate. First quarter FY 2007 cancellations totaled 436 versus 585 in fourth quarter FY 2006 and this quarter’s cancellation rate of 29.8% was lower than the 36.9% cancellation rate last quarter. However, we are still well above the Company’s historical average of about 7%.

“We saw an uptick in demand in a number of markets in January and the first week in February compared to December, but, seasonally, this is supposed to happen; even so, this activity definitely feels encouraging.

“A few markets, such as Hoboken, Jersey City, Manhattan and Brooklyn, are quite strong. Some markets, such as Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, Reno, and parts of Florida, may not yet have stabilized. We continue to monitor these and other markets for potential write-downs. We expect that write-downs for our first quarter and full fiscal year will significantly exceed the estimates in the guidance we provided in December, 2006. We are currently in the initial stages of our review. As we have noted in prior quarters, estimates of write-downs are often inaccurate. However, based upon our preliminary evaluation of a number of communities, we believe first-quarter write-downs will be at least $60 million and could be as high as $160 million or more.

“We ended the quarter with 320 communities compared to 300 at FYE 2006 and 258 at first-quarter-end 2006. We have continued to purchase some sites that we believe are good buys even at today’s reduced home sale paces and prices. The parcels we are acquiring have recently received their entitlements after being under option and in our approval pipeline for several years."

“Because some deals don’t make sense under current market conditions, we have continued to trim our land position. We ended the quarter with approximately 70,000 lots under control compared to our peak of 91,200 at 2006’s second-quarter-end and 73,800 lots at FYE 2006."

“We continue to believe that buyer confidence is the key to a turnaround in the new home market. It appears that the media’s sentiment toward the housing market is becoming more balanced and their messages are making customers aware that, in the current climate of attractive interest rates, motivated sellers and a generally healthy economy, now is a good time to buy a home.”

Toll Brothers’ financial highlights for the first-quarter ended January 31, 2007 (preliminary and unaudited):

• FY 2007’s first-quarter homebuilding revenues of approximately $1.09 billion decreased 19% from FY 2006’s first-quarter homebuilding revenues of $1.34 billion, the first-quarter record. Revenues from land sales totaled approximately $3.4 million for FY 2007’s first quarter, compared to $4.7 million in FY 2006’s first quarter.
• In the Company’s fiscal 2007 first quarter, unconsolidated entities in which the Company had an interest had revenues of approximately $20.6 million compared to $52.1 million in the same period of FY 2006. The Company’s share of the profits from the delivery of these homes is included in ‘Equity Earnings in Unconsolidated Entities’ on the Company’s Income Statement.
• The Company’s FY 2007 first-quarter net contracts of approximately $749.2 million declined by 34% over FY 2006’s first-quarter net contracts of $1.14 billion. In addition, in FY 2007’s first quarter, unconsolidated entities in which the Company had an interest signed contracts of approximately $29.2 million.

The Company signed 1,463 gross contracts in FY 2007’s first quarter, a 14% decline from the 1,695 signed in FY 2006’s first quarter. However, FY 2007’s first-quarter cancellation rate (cancellations divided by first-quarter gross contracts) was 29.8%, compared to a rate of 8.8% in FY 2006. Therefore, FY 2007’s first quarter net contracts, the total the Company typically reports, totaled 1,027 contracts, down 33% compared to 1,544 net contracts in FY 2006’s same period. FY 2007’s first-quarter-end communities totaled 320 versus 258 at first-quarter-end 2006.

• FY 2007’s first-quarter-end backlog of approximately $4.15 billion declined 30% versus FY 2006’s first-quarter-end backlog of $5.95 billion. In addition, at January 31, 2007, unconsolidated entities in which the Company had an interest had a backlog of approximately $26.7 million.

Toll Brothers will be broadcasting live via the Investor Relations section of its website, www.tollbrothers.com, a conference call hosted by chairman and chief executive officer Robert I. Toll at 2:00 p.m. (EST) today, February 8, 2007, to discuss these results. To access the call, enter the Toll Brothers website, then click on the Investor Relations page, and select “Conference Calls”. Participants are encouraged to log on at least fifteen minutes prior to the start of the presentation to register and download any necessary software. The call can be heard live with an on-line replay which will follow and continue through February 21, 2007.

Toll Brothers, Inc. is the nation's leading builder of luxury homes. The Company began business in 1967 and became a public company in 1986. Its common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "TOL". The Company serves move-up, empty-nester, active-adult and second-home home buyers and operates in 21 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Toll Brothers builds luxury single-family detached and attached home communities, master planned luxury residential resort-style golf communities and urban low-, mid- and high-rise communities, principally on land it develops and improves. The Company operates its own architectural, engineering, mortgage, title, land development and land sale, golf course development and management, home security and landscape subsidiaries. The Company also operates its own lumber distribution, and house component assembly and manufacturing operations.
Toll Brothers, a FORTUNE 500 Company, is the only publicly traded national home building company to have won all three of the industry's highest honors: America's Best Builder from the National Association of Home Builders, the National Housing Quality Award, and Builder of the Year. Toll Brothers proudly supports the communities in which it builds; among other philanthropic pursuits, the Company sponsors the Toll Brothers - Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, bringing opera to neighborhoods throughout the world. For more information, visit tollbrothers.com.

[ianmac47]

Anyone notice that Google Maps has added building footprints to its maps? Its got to be linked to the out of date aerial photography because places like Trump and LHN are not included, but its still rather nifty just the same.

[kliq6]

The more residential condo being built in JC the better!!!!

[LincolnParkResident]

HIGHER ALTITUDE, HIGHER PRICE
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN

Published: February 11, 2007


THERE is a wealth of high-end, high-rise condominium units coming on the market along the Jersey “Gold Coast” — and purchase prices are soaring to new heights.


Last week, a two-story penthouse at the Beacon, the former Jersey City Medical Center complex that is being converted to condominiums, set a record for a high-rise apartment in Jersey City when a purchase contract was signed for $2.3 million.

“This is indeed a leap,” said Jackie Urgo, executive vice president of the Marketing, which is handling sales. She said that her agency had overseen sales at Liberty Terrace, the last high-rise to break price barriers in Jersey City, and that the highest purchase price there had been $1.45 million.

Most Liberty Terrace units were sold by September, though some are still available, said Mrs. Urgo — and she sees the market for expensive condos with riverfront views as having picked up significantly since then. (Last count was 10-20 which they can't get sold, and "there were price drops suggested on the last ones, until the buyers of the rest revolted and as many as 10-15 cancelled contracts, because of Mrs. Urgo's aggressive pricing" and thinking it is still Manhattan she was pricing in, it was stated to me by the manager of the sales office at the time now the manager at Liberty Harbor's Sales Office.)

At the 55-story Trump Plaza, now under construction in Jersey City, more than 200 contracts for condos have been signed since sales started in October. Asking prices for apartments there range from $400,000 to around $2.5 million for the penthouse, which has not yet been sold.

The Beacon, a $350 million conversion of eight Art Deco structures set on a hill in Jersey City’s downtown, has until now been marketed as a lower-cost alternative to waterfront high-rises. Studio units on low floors of the first two Beacon buildings, which are to open this spring, sold for $325,000. (Originally they stated January 2007)

A total of 265 units, out of 315 studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom condos in the first two buildings, have sold, according to the developer, Metrovest Equities, based in Manhattan. Ultimately, Metrovest plans to create 1,200 condos and rental units at the Beacon complex.

The penthouse that sold is now taking shape on the 20th and 21st floors of the Beacon’s Capitol building. It will offer three bedrooms, three full and two half baths, a library, a den, a breakfast room and a private interior elevator, with a total of 3,195 square feet of interior space. In addition, the penthouse has three terraces covering 2,100 square feet, facing north, southeast and west, with views of the full Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

“This is some apartment,” said George Filopoulos, Metrovest’s president. “We’ve tried to take advantage of all the unique architectural features these buildings offer, and the quirks in this one make for a magnificent home.”

More than 100 different designs have been developed for units at the Capitol and the Rialto, the other Beacon building now under construction. The Rialto penthouse unit is being marketed, as are the two condos below the penthouse at the Capitol.

Just to the north, in Hoboken, where prices have generally tracked higher than in Jersey City, a record is certain to be set whenever contracts are signed for two penthouse condos atop the W Hotel, now being built beside the Hudson River.

The asking price for those units — which come with full W Hotel service — is $4.4 million, according to the developer, Michael Barry of the Hoboken-based Applied Development Company. He said that there had been a number of “serious lookers” and that he expected both to sell well before completion of the hotel building in the summer of 2008.

Prices for the W condos are roughly $1,000 per square foot — around $300 per square foot more than the typical new-construction high-rise unit gets in Hoboken — according to the company, handling W’s sales.

But, Mrs. Urgo noted, the W will provide exceptional service and ambience for Hoboken, with a sleek design by the Manhattan architecture firm of Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, as well as concierge service, a restaurant and shopping area, the W Bliss spa, an upstairs bar and a stunning lobby with a street-level bar.

There will be nine floors of condos with two, three or four bedrooms atop the hotel — a total of 38 units — with asking prices starting at $1.5 million. Mr. Barry said 32 were already under contract.

The four-bedroom penthouses each provide 4,250 square feet of space, with unobstructed wraparound views of New York City from their 25th floor perch. Each has floor-to-ceiling windows, a den and a fitness room, the developer said.

Three three-bedroom units on the floor below have been sold for $2.6 million, which may be a record for high-rise units in Hoboken, according to the Urgo's company.

Another candidate to challenge Hoboken’s record might be Maxwell Place, where the first of two riverfront buildings recently opened to its first occupants, but where closing prices have not yet been reported. A second building is being marketed, although construction has not started. Several large two-bedroom units on upper floors of the second building have asking prices in the $2 million range.

The W and Maxwell Place have been attracting buyers from Manhattan and New Jersey in roughly equal numbers, according to Applied and the Pinnacle Companies, the builder of Maxwell Place.

Another huge development in Jersey City, the Liberty Harbor project, which covers 28 city blocks, will have 667 units coming on the market this year and next, with an eventual 7,000 to 10,000 units planned at a site adjacent to the Paulus Hook neighborhood. Right now, the project has some four- and five-bedroom town homes on the market, at prices of $1.5 million to $1.66 million.(Formerly, a development under priced by the other developers until they complained and prices were raised. Originally prices were looked at for $600+/SF until the marketing company, brought for interviews to get the price down of the local resale market, "heard from one of the sales people on the site at LHN".)

At Port Liberte in Jersey City, several lavish town homes at the water’s edge are up for resale at prices in excess of $2 million, including one for $2.99 million. And in Hoboken, two grand three-story brownstones are listed at $2.75 million and $3 million. (Which they are now having problems selling, as the was a deed restriction on the property in order to build the tower they want to, "Which was on to a degree the PortLibertedirect.com website, and the agents at the Marketing Directors had no problem admitting, including the former Manager, who was there for years, as any resident who bought from the developer can tell one, and now she is the Manager at Trump Plaza".)

“The high-rise market is different, though,” Mr. Filopoulos noted. “We’re really excited about setting a record with the Beacon that signifies a real change in the high-rise picture in Jersey City.”

As with the W, he said, the amenities are crucial to the value of the condos.

The Rialto and Capitol buildings are joined by a two-story lobby with a 24-hour doorman and concierge. Residents will also be provided valet parking, shuttle service to PATH trains and ferry stations, and access to a 25,000-square-foot “lifestyle and fitness” center with a full-time staff. Club Aqua, as the center is called, is to feature an indoor pool, gym, lounge with hot tubs, his and hers saunas and steam rooms, a “social sauna,” treatment rooms, a yoga studio, a juice bar, a screening room and a children’s playroom.

Beacon residents will also have access to a restored Art Deco theater that will be available for events, a catering kitchen and a rooftop sundeck for grilling, dining and lounging, Mr. Filopoulos said. “Additional spaces are being brought back to mint condition to be used as poker rooms, a reading gallery and a billiards hall,” he added.

A “town center” now under construction will have a rooftop bar-restaurant, shops, a market, a prekindergarten and day-care facility, a movie theater and an art gallery.

[tbal]

Just thought I'd post this relatively new rendering of a building that was approved back in November (I think)...it will be located in the far southwest corner of Downtown, a few blocks off from Grand Street (should be a great addition to this area that is relatively "empty"). It will be the largest project completed by the thriving Mushroom Development which appears to be a competitor of Fields Living.

The website (www.mushroomdevelopment.com) states that the company will break ground for this building in the coming Spring.

[JCMAN320]

Very cool I like!

[macmini]

The Bates project looks really nice, tbal is this near LHN? The NYT article is great I still can't believe that they sold the penthouse. I though it wouldn't sell until the projects was gone. JCman do you know whats up with montgomery projects I heard some one say their are no plans to teardown the projects I hope thats not true.

[ianmac47]

There are lots of rumors on the projects and whether they are being torn down or not. I believe the recent NOT getting torn down rumor comes from some sort of five year plan that is filed with the federal housing authority that does not call for them to be replaced. However, I've also heard that as the Beacon progresses-- phase 3 or 4, they will be looking to get rid of them. Based on the age of those buildings, its probably time to replace them anyway. Most other projects of that vintage in New Jersey and around the country have been replaced. New Brunswick for instance knocked there's down in '01 I believe and replaced them with 'new urbanist' style project housing-- low rise, lower density, mixed use. Also, Newark is getting ready to rip down their high-rise projects. I think the real issue is that project housing of that vintage was of low quality and now they are getting older and really just need to be replaced. Anyway, the point is, at this point its all conjecture, but its likely they will be coming down in the next ten years.

[JoeSas]

Here is the link: http://www.steubenstreet.com/

Hopefully more info will be posted soon.