Jersey City Rising

[citybooster]

You're welcome JCMan...I'm not advocating eliminating cars and parking,just a sizable reduction.Looking at the future when many of the currently stalled projects will start getting built as inevitably will happen,I was under the impression the city was trying to sell the downtown/waterfront area as being designed with emphasis on mass transit and urban smart,green oriented design.Massive congestion complicated by all the traffic getting out and getting back into the megagarages doesn't seem to make that vision very realistic.I do expect garages and cars to remain as part of the landscape,but it seems the city doesn't know what it wants to make of downtown.

Ian,I agree with you so much about the architectural atrocities these megagarages...huge,imposing,awkward,ugly represent.A lot more ingenuinity and creativity in blending the parking with the residential/amenities of the buildings would go so much to make these buildings something we in Jersey City can take pride in.There aren't that many architectural gems being developed in the first place....those garages make things even more appalling.

I love the Gulls Cove example....the parking is wonderfully blended into the building so it doesn't stand out and distract.Few even try to blend it in as naturally as possible....I dread when the Toll Brothers atrocities are built in the ex-PAD.The designs for the buildings are very underwhelming,especially given the historic character of the area.The garages probably would be worse.

I agree in emphasizing architectural aesthetics,working to see the neighborhood served with beautiful,interesting buildings even if they rise higher than the neighborhood groups like.The way things are going,it's better to engage and be relevant and get some of what you want for the area... than tilt at windmills dreaming the impossible dream of the low density artistic haven that doesn't work with the demographics and needs of the area.And winding up with nothing but a poorly designed,developer dictated building plan.

[JCMAN320]

Tempers flare as Jersey City officials debate tax abatement policy with critic

By Amy Sara Clark/The Jersey Journal
September 21, 2009, 10:42PM


Amy Sara Clark / The Jersey Journal
Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop tries to get both sides to calm down and get the discussion to focus on the recommendations put forth in the New Jersey Policy Perspective's report at tonight's City Council caucus. At left is City Councilwoman Viola Richardson.

According to a New Jersey think tank, Jersey City gives out more tax abatements than anywhere else in the state, robbing the city, county and schools of much needed taxes and unfairly burdening residents of non-abated properties with an unfair financial burden.

But administration official, armed with 29 pages of rebuttal, and the Jersey City City Council, got into a hot debate with the report’s co-author, Naomi Mueller Bressler of New Jersey Policy Perspective, at tonight's City Council caucus.

“We believe that tax abatements represent the most powerful economic development tool we have at our disposal,” Mayor Jerramiah Healy wrote in the introduction to the city’s rebuttal.

The NJPP report gave the example of Sugar House, a 65-unit tax-abated condominium. The report says that in 2007, condo owners there paid a total of $695,477, 95 percent of it going to Jersey City. But if they had paid conventional taxes, they would have paid more than twice that — $1,627,108, with $746,477 going to the city.

But Jersey City Business Administrator Brian O’Reilly challenged Bressler’s calculations, wielding their own calculations on four buildings — 101 Hudson, 10 Exchange Place, Cali-Grove Street and Harborside Plaza 2 & 3 — that recently switched from abatements to conventional taxes. He said in those examples, the city received an average of 31 percent less under conventional taxes.

Bressler countered that even in cases where abatements benefited Jersey City, abated properties still shortchanged the county and schools, leaving residents in non-abated properties in Jersey City, as well as taxpayers across the state in the case of the schools, make up the difference.

She also made several recommendations to the city including that the city should grant abatements only in truly blighted areas, open the process of granting abatements to the public, limit the percentage of a municipality’s revenue that can come from tax abatements so that municipalities do not overly rely on this money to balance budgets, limit abatements to 10 years, bar elected officials from granting abatements to developers who have contributed to their campaigns and give county and school districts a greater share of the tax-abatement money.

City officials said in their written response that they have opened the abatement process by opening tax abatement committee meetings to the public and that the developer pay-to-play ordinance, which passed Sept. 9. The response rejected most of the remaining recommendations.

Afterward, downtown resident Mark Smith, who owns a brownstone on Grand Street, said he was disappointed by the response to the presentation. “People who live in luxury waterfront condos pay a fraction of what I pay and I sense there’s an inequality that needs to be addressed,” he said.

But he said it was obvious that the presentation “pushed some buttons” for the council leading to a defensive response. “They addressed minor issues but they didn’t seem to put much thought into the issues in the report,” he said.

Link to reformed pay-to-play ordinance:
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jers...870.xml&coll=3

[JCMAN320]

Hoboken-Jersey City Waterfront Walkway open 24/7

By Jamie Schuh / The Jersey Journal
September 22, 2009, 12:28PM


Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal
Officials and residents of Jersey City and Hoboken walk across the newly-opened waterfront walkway between the two cities

The 175-foot walkway that connects Hoboken and Jersey City along the waterfront had its official ribbon-cutting yesterday and officials announced it will be open 24/7.

Earlier this month, Jamie LeFrak, the managing partner of the LeFrak Organization, builders of Newport in Jersey City, said the Long Slip Pedestrian Bridge and walkway would be closed at 9 p.m. in the summer and by 7 p.m. during the winter.

The LeFrak Organization paid $2 million to build the walkway, while the bridge on the Hoboken side of the Long Slip Canal cost $6.4 million, most of that money coming from federal sources.

But yesterday, Gov. Jon Corzine, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, both of whom live in Hoboken, and other officials, said the walkway will stay open day and night.

"Send out the word, it's open 24/7!" Corzine shouted as he and other officials - including Hoboken acting Mayor Dawn Zimmer, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, and U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, D-West New York - led a walking tour of the walkway and bridge.

LeFrak's stated concern with keeping the walkway open at night had been security, believing earlier this month that it was his organization's responsibility since it built the walkway.

But yesterday, LeFrak said local police have taken over responsibility for security on the bridge.

The path connects the Newport development in Jersey City with Hoboken Terminal.

[JCMAN320]

Jersey City brings new services to the HUB shopping plaza

By Amy Sara Clark/The Jersey Journal
September 22, 2009, 8:39PM


Courtesy of the City of Jersey City
From left, Jersey City's Department of Housing, Economic Development & Commerce Director Carl Czaplicki, Councilpersons Michael Sottolano, Peter Brennan and Viola Richardson, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Deputy Mayor Tayari Kabili and Jersey City Redevelopment Agency Director Bob Antonicello, cut the ribbon to open three new city divisions at the MLK Plaza shopping center / HUB, Tuesday, September 22, 2009.

The City of Jersey City brought three new city services to the HUB shopping plaza with a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday morning.

The divisions of Community Development, Tenant/Landlord Relations and Housing Code Enforcement have moved satellite offices into the Department of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce annex, which is located at 360 Martin Luther King Drive. In addition, a representative from the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission will be at the annex on Tuesdays and Thursdays for people to arrange sewer connections.

"People in Ward A and Ward F will not have to go to 30 Montgomery St. and try to find parking," Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy said at the ceremony. "They can get the services they need in their community."

"I think it says that there's a concern that people are able to access services. It will also bring more people to the HUB. For me its a win-win situation," said Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson who attended the event along with Ward A Councilman Michael Sottolano and Councilman at-large Peter Brennan.

The Division of Community Development helps residents and organizations access to such programs as Community Development Block Grants, the Homeowner Rebate Program and the First Time Homebuyers Program. The Division of Tenant/Landlord Relations advises tenants of their rights and mediates tenant-landlord disputes. Tenants can go to the Housing Code Enforcement Division for such issues as heat and hot water problems, abandoned buildings and illegal apartments.

An employee from Tenant/Landlord Relations and Housing Code Enforcement will be at the annex on Mondays and Fridays, Community Development will send a representative on Wednesdays.

[JCMAN320]

HEALY: NO DEAL
77 Hudson asks to alter abatement

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER


David Jolkovski/Journal File Photo
77 Hudson Street's request for altered tax abatement deal is opposed my Mayor Healy.

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy might be sending developers a message: Crystal Point did not set a precedent.

In June, Fisher Development Associates, the builder of the 269-unit condo complex at 2 Second St., came to the city and asked for a better tax abatement deal - and got it.

But K. Hovnanian, owner of 420-unit luxury condo building 77 Hudson, might not be so lucky.

Even though 77 Hudson asked for the identical deal the city gave Crystal Point, Healy shot off a letter to the developer Monday saying the city plans to stand pat with its original 20-year abatement agreement, which guarantees the city payments of 16 percent of the project's gross income per year.

In his letter to 77 Hudson officials, Healy stated "the award or modification of tax abatements is not a matter of right" and the fact that the building is already completed means that the justification for the tax abatement "is absent."

Crystal Point is nearly complete, but Healy says he recommended approval of that building's request because it is "in an area that is clearly more remote than 77 Hudson."

Crystal Point is about three blocks from a Light Rail stop, while 77 Hudson is across the street from one. The buildings are roughly the same distance from the Exchange Place PATH station.

Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop said he doesn't buy the mayor's explanation, saying the rejection was less about location than timing.

"Two months ago, he supported Crystal Point's abatement deal," Fulop said. "I think any reasonable person would say that if he supported the same situation weeks before the arrests and subsequent to that his position changed - it makes one doubt further the legitimacy of the Crystal Point approval."

Several Jersey City municipal employees, including Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and City Council President Mariano Vega Jr. were arrested July 23 as part of a massive FBI investigation into corruption.

Crystal Point's adjusted tax deal extended the length of the abatement from 20 to 30 years, and reduced the percentage of annual gross revenue paid the city to 11 percent for the first five years, 13 percent payments for the next five years, and 16 percent for the final 20 years.

According to Eugene Paolino, the attorney for 77 Hudson, his building asked for the same agreement in order "to level the competitive playing field."

He said yesterday he had just found out about the mayor's rejection of the application and wasn't prepared to comment.

The City Council has to vote on this matter. It's unlikely, but the council could vote as early as tonight.

The City Council meets tonight at 6 at City Hall, 280 Grove St.

[ianmac47]

I think we are actually moving towards a period where we could build residential buildings with little to no parking and not have a problem at all. The denser the neighborhoods become, the more walkable they also become. Manhattan residential buildings don't need to build parking: 80% of families don't even own a car. We aren't there yet, but certainly downtown could move towards a 50% to 60% rate, which is what it is citywide in New York.

[JCMAN320]

That would be great and the evidence of that happening is that JC has the 3rd most amount of households without a car in the nation only behind NYC and NWK!(40.67%; 2000 Census)

Also JC has the 2nd highest use of mass ridership in the nation only behind NYC and ahead of DC! (46.62%; 2006 American Community Survey)

Walking or biking to work is 8.17%! (2006 American Community Survey)

All these numbers, along with our population, certainly have increased and I'm sure that will be reflected in the 2010 census that our Mayor, Jerrimiah Healy, has been pushing very hard.

[JCMAN320]

Jersey City's Harriet Tubman Homes win award for quality

By The Jersey Journal
September 28, 2009, 9:30AM

Harriet Tubman Homes, an eight-townhouse mixed-income development in Jersey City won the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency's Choice Award Tuesday for its quality and affordability according to today's Jersey Journal.

Located on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at Myrtle Avenue, the homes were completed in October 2008. Before the homes were built the block was a vacant lot.

The homes show that mixed-income housing doesn't have to be built cheaply, but rather, can be built with high quality materials and in an energy efficient way, said Robert Antonicello executive director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, which oversaw development of the homes.

The 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom brick townhouses sold for between $70,000 to $259,900, depending on the income of the buyers, Antonicello said.

The houses are supplied with energy-efficient appliances, 10-inch thick, 100 percent brick exterior walls with 2 feet of high-grade insulation lining them and state-of-the-art hot water heaters, greatly reducing the homeowner's energy bills, Antonicello said.

"I think these people are very happy to be in a decent well-constructed affordable home and they're just waiting for the neighborhood to turn around," said Ward F Councilwoman Viola Richardson.

[MrWolf]

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2...rsey_city.html

[ianmac47]

This weekend is also the Artist Studio tour throughout the city (though primarily in the downtown). Saturday and Sunday, Noon to 6, local artists open up their houses, studios and galleries to show off their artwork.

[JCMAN320]

Linden challenges plans for heliport in Kearny; lawsuit cites danger to Jersey City

By The Jersey Journal
October 10, 2009, 3:03PM
By STAR-LEDGER STAFF

A lawsuit filed by the operator of Linden Municipal Airport is taking aim at what the operator believes represents a threat to private helicopter travel in the metropolitan area.

The lawsuit challenges a proposed heliport in the Hudson County town of Kearny, contending it would send low-flying helicopter traffic over densely populated Jersey City as the aircraft travel to and from New York City.

The lawsuit is filed in the aftermath of August's collision between a single-engine plane and a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River that killed nine people. Paul Dudley, director of the Linden airport, said he is afraid the helicopter route over Jersey City would risk an even deadlier crash that could threaten a federal shutdown of metropolitan airspace to all private helicopter traffic.

"There is a potential to put the whole industry out of business here," Dudley said. "If we have another accident, the impetus to close down the airspace will be so great it will be insurmountable and we will all be shut down."

Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said he had no comment on what the agency might do under such a scenario.

The proposed heliport in Kearny would be on an industrial peninsula at the southern tip of the town in the River Terminal Development site on Central Avenue.

The site is far removed from the residential western portion of Kearny and, Dudley said, town residents would be exposed to none of the noise and hazards of the helicopter traffic that residents of Jersey City would face.

"Kearny is basically subjecting Jersey City to all of the negatives of this facility," said Dudley, whose lawsuit was filed on behalf of an elderly Jersey City resident. "Jersey City gets all of the pain, Kearny gets none of it."

Dudley also noted Kearny residents mounted a heated campaign last year against a now-scuttled proposal for a heliport in the North Ward of Newark, a location that would have brought helicopter traffic directly over the populated portion of Kearny.

William Sullivan and Thomas Cafferty, attorneys for the heliport, said approved FAA flight paths would be observed and they disputed the contentions in Dudley's lawsuit. "This is a lawsuit brought by a competitor and we are going to aggressively oppose it," Cafferty said. The Linden is a general aviation facility owned by the city of Linden.

Jersey City officials declined to comment directly on the Kearny heliport proposal, but city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill issued a statement on behalf of Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy.

"In light of the recent tragedy over the Hudson River in which a sightseeing helicopter and a small plane collided and the current review by the FAA of how that airspace is to be regulated, it would be premature to comment," the mayor's statement said. "However, any added air traffic that could potentially put our residents and business community in harms way is something we would likely not endorse."

The August collision occurred at an altitude below 1,100 feet in unregulated air space where pilots fly under visual flight rules and rely on their own communications to avoid collisions.

The operators of the proposed Air Pegasus Metro Heliplex, as the Kearny facility would be known, have filed plans indicating pilots would observe flight paths over waterways and highway corridors that would skirt Jersey City and other populated areas. But, Dudley said, Kearny has no authority to enforce those flight paths.

The Kearny zoning board approved plans for the heliport in August, but Cafferty said there was no definite timetable for when the project would begin.

[JCMAN320]

Linking Downtown with the rest of town
City applies for grant to extend Jersey Avenue into Liberty State Park



by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff

Jersey Avenue is known primarily as a road running through the heart of Downtown Jersey City. It stops by a creek behind the Jersey City Medical Center, then leads into a footbridge that extends over Mill Creek and into Liberty State Park.

But there have been proposals for years to extend Jersey Avenue, to allow traffic to enter into the park directly rather than take a roundabout route across several city blocks. Also, the extension would allow for emergency vehicles to enter into the park directly and transport those who fall ill in the park to local hospitals faster, such as the Jersey City Medical Center on Grand Street, located in the vicinity of the extension.

The City Council at its Sept. 22 meeting approved a resolution to submit an application to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) for a $72M TIGER Discretionary Grant for the entire funding of the Jersey Avenue Extension project.

If the grant is approved by the USDOT, then the $72 million will cover the three components of the project to be completed: construction of Jersey Avenue between Grand Street and Johnston Avenue/Audrey Zapp Drive, construction of the Mill Creek Bridge, and extension of a combined city sewer outlet into Mill Creek to just east of the proposed extension of Jersey Avenue.

If and when the project is completed, Jersey Avenue going into Phillips Avenue in Liberty State Park would become a 36-foot wide boulevard with two travel lanes and one parking lane. A 10-foot-wide bike path would be adjacent to the travel lane on one side of the roadway and separated by a landscaped island. Sidewalks will be constructed on both sides of the roadway. Also, there will be a bridge over Mill Creek spanning 125 feet in length.

The city, in their application document, estimates the project will take 18 months to complete. The project would have to start by August, 2010 since TIGER Grants will be authorized for projects that can be completed by Feb. 17, 2012.


Support of all kinds

The fact that the city has gotten this far toward extending Jersey Avenue can be seen as progress, as there has been opposition from Downtown neighborhood groups and the advocacy group Friends of Liberty State Park over the increased traffic coming through residential areas as well as disturbing nature.

City Councilman Steven Fulop said the project, if it takes place, will be a “good thing” for both Downtown residents who use the footbridge to go into the park, and for Bergen-Lafayette residents who have to deal with cars coming from the park and going through their neighborhoods to get to Downtown.

“Creating the access there and providing extra usage, and the promise of safety on the current footbridge will be good,” Fulop said.

Sam Pesin, president of Friends of Liberty State Park, said when the project was first considered in the 1990s, there had been opposition because there was talk of creating a four-lane road. However, in conversations with city officials involved in the project, they promised Pesin there will only be a two lane road connecting different parts of the city.

“Having a world-class local road, which hopefully will discourage regional commuters and which is a positive connection between neighborhoods, and between the neighborhoods and Liberty State Park and also is an attractive entrance to Liberty State Park, will make the Extension sensible and helpful in enhancing people's quality of life in Jersey City,” Pesin said.

Other officials have offered their approval of the project coming to fruition, with letters encouraging the U.S. Department of Transportation to consider the grant including Mayor Jerramiah Healy, State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (NJ-31), and U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg.

The letters all have in common their citing of the extension allowing for more visitors to come to Liberty State Park, which already receives three million people, and the necessity of a direct route between the park and the Medical Center.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.

[JCMAN320]

WALL STREET GIANT
1,600 finance jobs coming to Jersey City


Wednesday, October 14, 2009
By MELISSA HAYES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER



Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal
William B. Aimetti, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), announces the move of 1,600 of his company's employees from Manhattan to the Newport section of Jersey City. With him are, from left, New Jersey Development Authority CEO Caren Franzini, Gov. Jon Corzine, Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Chairman and CEO of the LeFrak Organization, Richard LeFrak, and Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise.

Nearly $90 million in incentives did the trick.

After trying for more than a year to woo a Wall Street giant across the Hudson, Gov. Jon S. Corzine joined local officials yesterday to announce the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is bringing 1,600 finance jobs to the Newport Office Center in Jersey City.

"This is a very good day," Corzine said, standing in front the company's future home at 570 Washington Blvd. "I'm almost troubled that it is in the midst of a political campaign because this is something that is real for this city, county and state."

The company holds the assets for most major banks and handled more than $1.88 quadrillion in securities transactions last year, officials said.

It will occupy a 12-story building that housed J.P. Morgan Chase, which is moving across the street.

DTCC plans to renovate the 415,000-square-foot office, including converting a floor of parking into office space, before moving employees in 2013.

New York and New Jersey fought over the company, which decided to keep 700 jobs, including its executives, at its headquarters at 55 Water St. in Lower Manhattan.

DTCC president and chief operating officer William Aimetti described the company as "the most important Wall Street firm you've never heard of," and said he looks forward to the move.

"New Jersey offered us a friendly business climate and convenient location," Aimetti said.

Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy welcomed the company and said the city is contributing $1 million in Urban Enterprise Zone relocation grants over four years.

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jers...650.xml&coll=3

[Ninjahedge]

LeFrak Organization -- is converting a floor currently devoted to parking into office space.

That is weird.

You would think there is enough office space in JC, especially after the burst bubble, to have a financial company take some space.

And converting a parking garage floor? That will be a PITA simply because of all the pitch and different standards used for garage construction as compared to office construction. I would have to see plans, but this does not sound like it will be a very clean conversion.

[injcsince81]

Originally Posted by JCMAN320

Linking Downtown with the rest of town
City applies for grant to extend Jersey Avenue into Liberty State Park



by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff

Jersey Avenue is known primarily as a road running through the heart of Downtown Jersey City. It stops by a creek behind the Jersey City Medical Center, then leads into a footbridge that extends over Mill Creek and into Liberty State Park.

But there have been proposals for years to extend Jersey Avenue, to allow traffic to enter into the park directly rather than take a roundabout route across several city blocks. Also, the extension would allow for emergency vehicles to enter into the park directly and transport those who fall ill in the park to local hospitals faster, such as the Jersey City Medical Center on Grand Street, located in the vicinity of the extension.

The City Council at its Sept. 22 meeting approved a resolution to submit an application to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) for a $72M TIGER Discretionary Grant for the entire funding of the Jersey Avenue Extension project.


Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.

The application deadline for USDOT Tiger Discretionary Grants was Sept 15, 2009 (http://www.dot.gov/recovery/ost/), so if Jersey City on Sept 22 resolved to file an application, they missed the boat.