NEW JERSEY | LOW-RISE / GENERAL Development News + Construction

[ALC11]

I guess he wants his legacy to be one much like his predecessors where he continued the trend of screwing NJ Transit and bending over for the Turnpike.

[Waymond_Womano]

@ALC11 What do you think of the proposal to widen the south end of the New Jersey Turnpike from two lanes to three lanes in each direction?

It doesn’t seem to be particularly problematic to me. Even at a 3 x 3 configuration it would still be half as wide as the 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 configuration across the middle stretch of the Turnpike.

I am not even sure it can be dismissed as a “just one more lane bro” boondoggle since that part of the Turnpike has not been expanded at all since the highway opened to traffic seven decades ago.

There’s clearly a need for horizontal expansion since this is the main truck/bus route between New York and all points south of Philadelphia. And its narrowness appears to be a bit of a chokepoint.

[ALC11]

I don’t have much issue with the southern expansion. Unless significant strides were made in transit accessibility down south, then there would be more concerns, but South Jersey has poor transit options so the turnpike has more usefulness, and as you said, it is a busy truck route. It also is not as densely populated as Hudson County so eminent domain and property destruction are of low concern. All of the heat regarding turnpike widening scheme is in the north and all the critics are targeting the north expansion because that is an absolute boondoggle.

[ALC11]

Some advances were made on the eventual construction of a new light rail line in South Jersey from Camden to Glassboro. It will re-use an existing line and there are already some NIMBY towns along the route voicing their disproval.

NJ Transit president on light rail: It's coming to South Jersey, like it or not.

[Nickfloyo]

Jersey City just got a map update on Google Maps for those interested. Not the latest showings ofc but it still shows how massive Journal Square’s skyline is becoming.

[ALC11]

Murphy wants to replace all of NJ Transit’s old buses and trains. Here’s how...

This is ambitious and has a misleading title.

NJ Transit has 689 railcars that aren’t MultiLevels. If they’re going to replace 250 cars, that’s not all the old trains, but simply the entire Arrow III fleet (230 cars) and perhaps a choice of the oldest 20 Comet II, IV or V coaches.

They better ditch Alstom if they’re going to be this ambitious because they have yet to deliver at least one railcar that’s serviceable and that wasn’t an incomplete car for a press photo (which they took back to finish). I have heard they took a couple completed powered MU cars out for testing at Pueblo’s test track but we’ll see when they’re ready (probably won’t be on time considering Alstom’s terrible track record).

[ALC11]

NJ Transit scrapped the idea of a permanent bus terminal at the Meadowlands.Instead, they will erect temporary structures. This is a significant blow towards making that sea of asphalt more transit-friendly.

NJ Transit scraps plan for MetLife Stadium bus terminal as World Cup...

[GentriVacation]

I knew they’d fumble the bag when it came to this project. They’ve been tossing around plans for the world cup for years but never settled on anything.

[abot]

Per the latest news of another new JC tower at 555 Summit Ave, I wanted to get a sense of the scale of development in the city compared to NYC. This is probably not a comprehensive list but these are most of the major developments I could find on YIMBY:

Development	Neighborhood	Height (ft)	Floors	Units	Status
One Journal Square 1	Journal Square	710	64	861	U/C
One Journal Square 2	Journal Square	710	64	862	U/C
Urby 2	Downtown	677	69	755	U/C
Urby 3	Downtown	677	69	755	U/C
72 Montgomery	Downtown	648	56	600	A
55 Hudson	Downtown	637	58	1017	U/C
Imperial Tower	Journal Square	637	55	542	U/C
420 Marin	Downtown	634	60	802	U/C
808 Pavonia 1	Journal Square	620	55	594	A
808 Pavonia 2	Journal Square	560	49	595	U/C
501 Summit	Journal Square	556	53	605	U/C
20 Long Slip	Downtown	526	47	530	A
555 Summit	Journal Square	512	48	952	A
107 Morgan	Downtown	382	34	624	A
Singh Tower	Journal Square	322	29	209	U/C
11-29 Cottage	Journal Square	321	28	669	U/C
20 South Cove	Downtown	320	30	300	A
35 Cottage	Journal Square	319	27	588	U/C
38 Cottage	Journal Square	316	28	648	A
29 Van Reipen	Journal Square	313	27	696	U/C
612 Pavonia	Journal Square	313	27	432	U/C
626 Newark	Journal Square	293	27	576	U/C
290 Coles	Downtown	250	22	670	A
250 Morris	Downtown	201	16	300	U/C
257 Grand	Downtown	176	15	106	U/C
619 Marin	Downtown	169	17	613	A
3085 Kennedy	Journal Square	156	14	373	U/C
166 Van Reipen	Journal Square	156	13	196	U/C
20 Carbon Place	West Side	138	12	547	A
76-82 Liberty	Journal Square	85	8	53	A
Total	-	12,334	1,121	17,070	-

(~11,000 units U/C)

For comparison, Gowanus has just over 7,000 units under construction, which I am assuming has now overtaken LIC as NYC’s fastest building neighborhood.

Another comparison you could draw is that JC is building a neighborhood the size of Gramercy from the ground up, likely over 10% of the current population of the city.

Bravo JC

[apophenic]

Some others you didn’t include (ignoring low-rise or those under 50 units here):

• 674 Route 440, 160 ft, 218 units (approved, possibly u/c): JERSEY CITY | 11 Bennett St (682 Route 440) | 160 FT |14 FLOORS

• 445 Route 440 (Bayfront I), 210 units (approved, possibly u/c)

• 301 West Side Ave–6 floors, 200 units (under construction)

• 403 Whiton St – 8 floors, 49 units (u/c)

• 342 Johnston Ave – 8 floors, 55 units (u/c)

• 189 Philip St (SciTech Scity) – 12 floors, 500 units (u/c)

• 242 Hudson – 68 floors, 680 units: JERSEY CITY | 242 Hudson St (Harborside 8) | 719 FT | 68 FLOORS (approved)

• 143 Columbus Dr - 7 floors, 63 units (u/c)

• 175 Academy St - 6 floors, 50 units (u/c)

• 99 Monitor St - 6 floors, 87 units

I’ll add more tomorrow.

[apophenic]

@abot

99 Monitor St, which I mentioned in my last post, is u/c. 290 Coles, on your list, is also u/c (checked today). Also 694 Monmouth, which is 12 stories, 465 units.

Some more:

• 176 West Side Ave - 5 floors, 67 units (u/c)
• 857 Bergen Ave - 5 floors, 50 units (u/c)
• 857 Communipaw Ave - 6 floors, 90 units (u/c)
• 869 Communipaw Ave - 6 floors, 65 units (u/c)
• 40 Center St - 5 floors, 80 units (u/c)
• 425 Third St - 5 floors, 48 units (u/c)
• 669 Bergen Ave - 5 floors, 46 units (u/c)
• 387 Eighth St - 10 floors, 75 units (u/c)
• 1 Constellation Pl - 5 floors, 401 units (u/c)
• 311 Sip Ave - 5 floors ,42 units (u/c)

[apophenic]

@abot, sorry, 290 Coles and 258 Sixteenth are the same. The other building that’s u/c but not on that list is 694 Monmouth St: 12 stories, 465 units.

[apophenic]

Altogether that brings the under construction pipeline to about 14,500 units. But there are thousands more approved units I’m not counting. Don’t have the time now.

[Waymond_Womano]

That’s a lot of new units. Maybe by 2050 or 2060 Jersey City will surpass Newark as the largest city in NJ? (And possibly largest municipality as well, as the growth trajectory of Lakewood Township is not entirely clear).

Though Newark is experiencing its own boom, so it might take longer for Jersey City to catch up.

[Peezee]

Are URBY 2 and 3 already under construction?

[apophenic]

They were issued construction permits, but didn’t actually begin construction unfortunately.

[apophenic]

I think JC will be the largest by 2030. Maybe I’m wrong, but I just don’t think there’s any way Newark will stay on top given the sheer scale of the expansion–we’re talking 28,995 units that have started construction since January 1, 2019 (and therefore weren’t occupied at the time of the 2020 Census). Enough for 50,000 residents, even being conservative on household size.

We’ll see!

[the726]

I’m also working with clients on a few 5+ story mixed use buildings around the city. So there’s so much more in the pipeline. That list doesn’t even take into account all the detached 2-4 family homes also being built.

But in other news - here’s an update on PATH’s new subtstation on Washington St. as well as a rendering I found online and a facade mockup on the Powerhouse lot.

[Waymond_Womano]

Population doesn’t only grow due to increased amount of housing units.

You could simply have two families living in a unit that previously housed one family. Given Newark is much more affordable than Jersey City, as well as the widening income gap in the region and the dearth of affordable housing, I could see Newark continuing its run as the state’s largest city for decades to come. I do think that Jersey City will eventually overtake Newark, but it will likely not happen until 2050.

A big unknown is Lakewood Township. If current growth rates continue it could have 400,000 residents by 2050. But who can predict that far ahead?

source: Lakewood Township, New Jersey - Wikipedia

[apophenic]

Looking at the trends in Census American Community Survey 5-year data, we see that in 2006-2010 there were 2.8 people per household in Newark, and 2.6 per household in Jersey City. In 2018-2022 there were 2.6 people per household in Newark, and 2.4 per household in Jersey City. I don’t think there is a clear trend of Newark becoming more overcrowded compared to JC.

JC has started building more units in the past 5 years since 2019 than it did in all of the previous 10 years combined. And they’re all rental units, which aren’t kept vacant unlike condos sometimes are. I’m convinced the growth in this decade will dwarf the 18% growth in 2010-2020.

Just my two cents!