From the Jersey Journal:
Residential projects dominate landscape
Jersey City’s office market boom has hit a wall, making way for a surging housing market that will change the face of the city’s Downtown for decades to come, city officials and experts say.
While the 1980s and 1990s saw financial companies such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase transform Jersey City’s shores into the Gold Coast, today’s market is dominated by housing giants like Toll Brothers, K. Hovnanian and Donald Trump.
More than 15,000 residential units are expected to flood the Downtown area over the next several years, putting pressure on municipal services, according to the city’s Division of Planning. Though more than seven million square feet of office space was developed from 2000 to 2005, planning officials say the current office market is very sluggish and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
“There are currently no office projects under construction, and none planned,” says a planning report authored by Planning Director Robert Cotter earlier this year. Those two opposite trends have prompted at least one expert to declare that “the job growth era is over in Jersey City.”
From 1992 to 2000, the state created 243,000 high-paying office jobs, driven by Jersey City’s growth on the waterfront, says James Hughes, dean of Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
But since 2000, there has been a net loss across the state, thanks to increases in the state income tax and other business taxes, said Hughes. “New Jersey has become an unfriendly place to do business,” Hughes said.
The most recent sign of this trend is 77 Hudson St., where Hartz Mountain Industries just scrapped plans to build a 32-story office tower because the company believed that Jersey City cannot absorb the new space.
The company sold the land for $65 million to K. Hovnanian, which now plans to build two 48-story towers, with more than 1,300 condo and rental units combined.
who in the world would want to live
in downtown jersey city.
its like a foreign country.
I’ve lived there for 5+ years and it’s been great, neighborhoods are undergoing pretty substantial changes including many more bars/restaurants.
Paulus Hook (near the waterfront) is very nice, renovated brownstones akin to Brooklyn Heights – none of which you can touch for less than $1-$2 million. The construction boom there is amazing.. if a bit scary. But very easy commuting to NYC and still much cheaper than across the river.
Steve
“More than 15,000 residential units are expected to flood the Downtown area over the next several years…”
Good luck to those who bought into Jersey City, especially with a $0 down ARM.
Should be fun selling “used” condo with 15,000 new ones hitting the market.
Yep- and I think the pre-construction speculators are going to take a hit there, to be sure…
Steve
Jersey City as a “nice place to live” is an illusion. Try taking a walk 3-4 blocks West after dark.
Local convenience store owners are gunned down nearly every month.
The school system is dreadful.
The local punks run rampant after dark.
I would never raise a kid anywhere near that place.
The big new corporate buildings have brought in lots of commuters, and some restaurants will pop up to support the traffic they generate, but many are closed after dark. These businesses are not there to support residents, but the commuters.
I’ve lived in downtown JC for the past six years, I am constatntly amazed at the never ending construction.
I can’t imagine what these builders are thinking. All of this supply coming on the market at the same time has to affect prices.
The neighborhood is in general a nice place to live, but the problem of petty crime is an issue. You can’t live here if you have kids, unless you can afford private school. The rest of the city is still pretty bad.
All in all I like it a lot, but it’s not for everyone.
One other comment, these neighborhoods already have a lot of inventory on the market. Many of which where bought by speculators and are being flipped. The pricing pressure is going to increase dramatically as these new buildings come online. The downtown area is covered by for sale signs and open houses.
Looks like lots of “million dollar homes” are hitting the auction block
http://www.realtytrac.com/pub/articles/aol/modified/mMD_home_foreclosure.asp?a=b
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