Sunday, May 21, 2006

Jersey City Boom

From the Star Ledger:
BUILDING BOOM

"There's a gold rush happening on New Jersey's Gold Coast."

"Within an eight-block radius of City Hall in Jersey City, a half- dozen heavy duty cranes stand like giraffes looking over an unprecedented wave of residential development."

"Consider that 4,600 housing units are under construction in the city and another 4,400 are approved. Ten thousand more -- vir tually all in luxury skyscrapers -- are planned during the next decade, an infusion of wealth and highly educated professionals into a city many had given up for dead a generation ago."

"The city already has huge demographic divides. The downtown below the Palisades and along the Hudson River has been transformed from a Latino barrio to an increasingly wealthy, white and Asian enclave over the past two decades."

"The money is creeping up the hill, but the downtown still has the feel of a separate city. Brownstones the city all but gave away during the early 1980s sell for nearly $1 million. Parks like Hamilton and Van Vorst are filled with young children, and residents are no longer moving away to the suburbs after their children reach school age."

"Asked whether he believed the rush of new development was going too far, Healy said: "I'm not going to say there is too much success, too much prosperity. This city was hurting for a long time. I'm happy for whatever interest, investment and development done in Jersey City.""

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting to note that a few years ago, this would definitely NOT have been thought of as a "good" area. Just goes to show the ups and downs and that location is never a sure thing - either at the high end or the low.

5/21/2006 09:51:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you are single or married with no children or are a couple with no children, then it's fine. But if you have children, you're going to send them to the public schools? BA!! The state had to come in and takeover the schools it was so bad. Sure, I'll pay 750K for a 2 bedroom. Go up the hill and see what the Heights turned into. Central Avenue turned into Newark and Paterson.

5/21/2006 10:01:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm sure all of those purchasers rushing in are going to be thrilled with their $1000 per month property tax bills on top of their 'luxury' mortgages each morning while they avoid panhandlers and negotiate the worst roads in the US.

Jersey City will collapse the second buyers realize that it's a horrendously expensive place to live and the only local culture is across the river in NYC. Public services are awful, and the downtown is still dead and boring compared to NY or even Hoboken just up the road.

5/21/2006 01:27:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

True. But towns don't change in a day. Presumably the services and stores will follow the money.

5/21/2006 04:08:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr Healy and his gang must stop all this insane new development.
This city needs a hell lot of more planning and improvement before selling it out.

1) Bad roads - example Montgomery St/Grand St/Columbus Dr which leads to the City Hall from the NJTP have all been in pathetic condition for years.

2) Crazy Parking Situation ... you'll be lucky not to be ticketed by JC Parking Dept which scouts the streets 24/7 and rakes in $$$s. Winters are really bad times for street parking.

3) PATH trains to NYC are already overpacked and with 4600 new homes I can only imagine the commute to NYC during peak hours.

4) Crime Rate is HIGH as usual - JCPD is inefficient in keeping Crime Rate low. The city has a very low budget allocated to them.

5) Very Poor Public School System -Send your kids to PRIVATE school without even thinking!!!

6) HIGH price for everything - Rents/Parking/Car Insurance (Car thefts are high)...even swithing to GEICO can't save you any $$$s

7) New development is within 1 mile radius away from low income PROJECTS... Don't forget Drugs, Prostitution, Homeless and all other possible problems under the sun.

Good luck to all new buyers!!!

5 Year Resident of JC - finally moving to North Edison this month.

5/22/2006 01:41:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, you are all very wrong there are quite a few people who are wealthy in downtown JC and the Trump Towers will only amplify this. Also compared to Brooklyn, JC looks good it is not nearly is sketchy although the NYPD is a much better organization than JCPD. Really there are no cops Downtown. I agree prices are too high for an area on its way up, but they will stabilize. Development has been reckless, it is a Jersey City tradition. As for the availability of culture and conviences downtown, finally we are getting some good restraunts, but the Newport Mall, why is it so terrible, Newport is looking good, the Newport Mall on the other hand you could be a stabbing victim in that place, I think they run a bus from the projects every fifteen minutes.

5/22/2006 09:14:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There has been new development in the downtown area of Jersey City for about 10 years -- I was priced out of Paulus Hook in 2000 ($1M for a brownstone back then).

"Hey! there's development in JC!" is old news, very old news. The Newport apartments were built in the mid-80s to early 90's.

There is a glut of new development, though - I think the real point of that article was to puff up the new development in the face of a sinking real estate market.

5/23/2006 05:16:00 PM  

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