Sunday, June 11, 2006

1,100 Historic Condos For Jersey City

From the Star Ledger:

REBIRTH OF A LANDMARK

For decades, life and death dramas echoed through the giant buff brick buildings of the old Jersey City Medical Center.

There were the first squalls of 350,000 babies born in the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital from 1931 to 1979.
...
Today, the sounds of the city are back.

This time, it's the roar of cranes and shouts of workers restoring the 10 high-rises in what is, by several measures, the largest historic preservation project in state history.

Manhattan developer Metrovest Equities has begun converting the first two buildings of what eventually will become a mini-city of 1,100 condominiums, apartments, shops and restaurants renamed The Beacon.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the medical center is considered the state's largest and most detailed example of art deco architecture, with facades, lobbies and other historically significant areas protected by state law. Developers must restore, not alter them. They are eligible for tax breaks in return.
...
The $350 million project has plenty of competition in Jersey City. Several towers rising along the city's waterfront are offering buyers new luxury condos a short commute from Manhattan.
...
The project is the largest ever approved by the state for a 20 percent federal tax credit under the Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit program, Guzzo said. The credits cannot be used for condos, so Filopoulos said they will be applied to the cost of renovating public and commercial space.
...
To start, Metrovest is focusing on two buildings, a 22-story building renamed the Capitol and the 21-story Rialto, the former Building B, which served as the hospital's main entrance. The two buildings will contain 315 units.

Units in two more buildings go on sale in September. Sales of the condos, which range from $350,000 for a one-bedroom to $2.3 million for a penthouse with a 4,000-square-foot terrace with wraparound views are brisk, Filopoulos said.

The first new residents are expected to move in early next year. Developers hope the entire 10 buildings will be completed by 2010.

12 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"1,100 condominiums, apartments, shops and restaurants renamed The Beacon"

lol, what a joke. Thats the last thing NJ needs.....more condos.

More inventory, more glut, wave of foreclosures coming when the ARMS adjust, sky high property taxes.
This is becoming a big ugly.

We are without a doubt at the tipping point, only imagine how it will be in 2 years from now?? What will gas prices be? How much oil/barrel? How high will interests rates be? No way this market will even stay flat for the next 2 years. We are looking at at least 25% decrease in 2 years, across the board. 40-50% decrease in less desired areas.

6/11/2006 10:12:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Beacon is a really interesting challenge. It will have so much more character than the rest of the luxury condos in JC, yet, of course, it will be luxury and as up-to-date as any Trump tower, etc., going up on the waterfront. Yet the Beacon is in a tough area--not particularly dangerous per se, but so shabby and far from gentrifying that I can't see it happening. So, people who buy in the Beacon will be buying into an island, something like a gated community of art deco glory in a down-at-the-heels neighborhood; to far from the Path to walk, these folks will have their own shuttle service, etc.

There is a lot of faith here. If sales continue to be "brisk" I'd be surprised.

WM

6/11/2006 10:26:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pefect conbination for these '20 something liberal yuppies' who think that Journal Square area is the next Lower East Side or Williamsburg.

But in the next year we will have.
1) Plummeting prices

2) Skyrocketing crime rates

Read the papers and you will see that crime has soared in Jersey City. That part of Jersey City is shit, no decent stores, dirty, overpriced rents & prices.

6/11/2006 10:50:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

{{{lol, what a joke. Thats the last thing NJ needs.....more condos.

More inventory, more glut, wave of foreclosures coming when the ARMS adjust, sky high property taxes.}}}

Yeah, but the Condo boards and realtors think different. You need something like 20% - 25% down with nearly perfect credit to close on an apartment in most of these new condo buildings going up.

Why would their 'ideal purchaser' (someone single, under 30, NOT from the 'other 4 boros' of NYC, a six figure white collar professional) buy in such a crap (or 'ghetto to be PC) area???

6/11/2006 10:54:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

{{{The Beacon is a really interesting challenge. It will have so much more character than the rest of the luxury condos in JC, yet, of course, it will be luxury and as up-to-date as any Trump tower, etc., going up on the waterfront.}}}

Yeah, Pre Fab, homogenious, white suburban conformist shit is really 'character'. You must be just another real estate agent who will probably be selling used cars to subprime buyers 3 years from now.

6/11/2006 10:56:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"You must be just another real estate agent who will probably be selling used cars to subprime buyers 3 years from now."

Far from it--I just admire old architecture much more than new, and the Beacon, because it must be preserved, is a better venture in my book than all the other condo ventures in JC or elsewhere ("Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the medical center is considered the state's largest and most detailed example of art deco architecture, with facades, lobbies and other historically significant areas protected by state law. Developers must restore, not alter them.").

That said, I agree with others here that this project is in a "ghetto" and that it will be hard to complete, as much as I'd rather see this one come to fruition instead of all the others, which will be soulless. And I also agree that advertising for the Beacon is shamelessly "Sex-in-the-City" and, thus, suggests a problem with "character."

WM

6/11/2006 11:15:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's the address and some photos of the hospital:

http://tinyurl.com/ezrdm


88 Clifton Pl
Jersey City, NJ 07304
http://google.com/maps?q=88+Clifton+Place,+07304


Good luck after dark "investors"...

6/11/2006 11:44:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How many 'Imette St. Gullen & Nicole DuFresne' cases are we going to see??

Will it resonate like it did in NYC?? They better get some type of street smarts if they are moving to Jersey City. It is not soho, nor the upper east side.

The consumerist, snobby, yuppie attitude won't work doesn't work in that part of Jersey City

It will get pretty expensive paying $6.00 for the Lincoln Tunnel into the city, or paying a cab drive $40, $60 or more from Manhattan to Jersey City during the weekend since path service isn't that great late at night.

6/11/2006 11:56:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well you can't have urban revitalizaiton WITHOUT projects like this.

I've lived in 2 sketchy neighborhoods in NYC that were scary when I lived there but that are now fantastic and quite safe.

It's a good thing some people do have the guts to move into lousy neighborhoods. (I'm not one of them anymore). Otherwise they would just be given up for dead which wouldn't be to anyone's benefit.

Also, more condos? Great! People keep bitching about the lack of affordable housing. Well here ya go. Given the downward pricing pressures and climbing inventory, more people may have an opportunity to own at decent price points should they so choose. I say bring 'em on.

6/12/2006 07:43:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I live downtown, and I can say that say what you will the beacon has beautiful buildings and the location is not bad in terms of convience, the problem is the neighborhood. I would not dream of paying those prices to live there. The prime issue here is the montgomery projects, projects in Jersey City are scary places and are the hotbeds of criminal activity. While that area is better than it was 5 years ago that is true of everywhere in Jersey City. Someday this area will be better but it is not right now maybe if they were selling 1 bedroom s for 200k it would work but not at 350.

As for the PATH, on weekends and evenings it runs less frequently but it is not bad at all. Durring commuting hours it runs every 5 min so it is great. Too bad these people living at the beacon would be able to walk it and I doubt the buildings van to the station runs 24 hours.

As the last poster said it is great they are going to turn this neighborhood around and the buildings really do have excellent architecture, but .... the pricing is way out of whack, which begs the question why pay for a gamble when for the same $$$ you can have a sure thing in Hoboken or Newport.

6/12/2006 09:48:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Been in JC for quite awhile, and willing to do some urban pioneering- but the 'hood around the Beacon is really, really sketchy. The risk/reward at the prices they're asking is completely out of whack- not to mention what will happen when the condo mkt takes a real hit. Those on the perimeter will fall the most rapidly...

Steve

6/12/2006 07:29:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Show me a one bedroom in Hoboken and or Newport the comes close to the amenities offered at the Beacon for 350K. I don't think so...Jersey City and the journal square area as well as the Beacon will come around...the naysayers will be eating crow!!

6/15/2006 01:17:00 AM  

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