JERSEY CITY | 289 Jordan (533 Mercer St) | FT | 16 FLOORS

This past weekend

6 Likes

The Majestic Nursing and Rehab Center on Montgomery closed down awhile ago, it’s a few blocks from here. And I believe someone also bought the factory next door, so maybe there’s something to look forward to over there. It’s a huge site. Does anyone have any info on it?

Anyway, thanks for the updates @Oreo_Zchut!

3 Likes

The last proposal for the site next door (56 Baldwin) was for it to be converted to residential lofts. I’m not sure if those plans have changed or if they are trying to/have purchased the site next door.

From Jerseydigs:

The building, which has been family-owned-and-occupied since the 1920s, will be converted into residential lofts.

2 Likes

Also 75 Jordan coming along nicely

Also, demolition is imminent for the former nursing home, but it’s looked like this for awhile

6 Likes

The nursing home has an open permit for interior demo, but no permits have been filed for structural demo yet. Don’t know if they plan to do a structural demo or just gut the interior and reuse it.

2 Likes

That makes a lot of sense. Retrofitting into residential makes more economical sense than tearing the whole thing down.

2 Likes

Putting up the next two floors. I think this is more than halfway up now? I counted 12 floors past the base.

5 Likes

Taken today. Another 2 floors going up

7 Likes

Looks like it topped out

9 Likes

I don’t think it’s topping out yet. The rendering shows the floors go up to the 12th floor after the setback and this looks like floor 8 @Oreo_Zchut

The party walls, hidden, is being clad in brick already. So hopefully we see the front facade coming in late March. I couldn’t post a photo since I posted the last 3 posts haha :upside_down_face:

7 Likes

Looks like you’re right, it’s up to floor 12/16

1 Like



8 Likes

new jersey is not too far from new york but the kinda vibe it has is waayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy different. it is so on rise !

1 Like

having grown up in another big NJ city and lived in NYC and in JC, i’d say Hudson County/Jersey City is a lot more similar to the outer boroughs of NYC than to the rest of NJ. It’s something both native New Yorkers and native JC people hate when you point it out!

JC shares history and architecture with NYC all the way back to the founding by the Dutch in the 1660s. Brooklyn and Hudson County both had their first booms in the 1810s when Fulton and Stevens invented the steam ferry. The first steam ferry route in the world was from Hoboken to Manhattan, the second from Brooklyn Heights to Manhattan. That’s when they started building brownstones, which you see a lot in JC and Brooklyn but rarely anywhere else in NJ.

Then both Hudson County and Brooklyn boomed at the same time again in 1908, when the first subway tunnel opened to Brooklyn in January and the PATH tubes opened to Jersey City just a months later.

Even the accents are more similar between JC/Hoboken and NYC than to the rest of NJ!

Anyway welcome to the forum!

6 Likes

Taken earlier today. Workers still on site

8 Likes

Jersey still hasn’t shut construction at all.
I personally don’t think they should halt construction in NJ or NY except for interior work (which is pretty close quarters). See no reason why ironworking, concrete-pouring, facade hanging is particularly dangerous if one has mask + gloves (which lots of times they already have anyway)… they are fairly spread out jobs.

There were valid concerns about things such as hoist overcrowding which prompted many to complain to Cuomo and caused the shutdown

3 Likes

Apr 7

5 Likes

Agreed. They already have protective equipment on, I didn’t think of that. When I took these photos, there were a bunch of workers all headed back inside, at least 5 or so on a single lift and they had no protective gear on. Others were having lunch nearby, somewhat 6ft from each other. So not really sure what to make of that.

But update: construction sites closed down starting the 10th.

so i guess that’s the end of that. seeing the crews still working was one of the last things that still cheered me up, things are just very depressing these days between all the people dying and sick, people losing their jobs, and virtually nothing open to distract us from all the suffering.

architecture firms and contractors in NYC have already seen a bloodbath in terms of job losses. lot of jobs will be lost, so let’s hope that stopping construction save lives and end up being worth it.

1 Like

There’s certain exceptions to the rules. Affordable housing, sites that can maintain 6 feet distance. Realistically, it’s understandable. Aside from a lot of the workers being unable to actually be distant due to the nature of their work (as well as the nature of their personalities not exactly being the most cautious), there’s the whole problem of all of the engineers/architects/inspectors/other consultants that need to come to the site and visit multiple sites in a day/week/etc that can contribute to continued spread.

That being said, I agree. Despite the noise, it was sort of nice to see the construction making things seem sort of normal out there. It would be a lot weirder if it all stopped.

In any case, for the past two weeks they were still working on this but they don’t seem to have done any vertical construction in a while.

These pictures are also around 1.5-2 weeks old (time is all relative nowadays anyway)

5 Likes