[NYguy]

Journal Square is a rail and bus hub for commuters, and can handle more office development than it has. However, the JC waterfront was developed as an alternative to lower Manhattan. Before that, there was not much in that area, and Journal Square was the more traditional urban center.

Back to the old failed proposal, looks as though the city wants to get something going...

http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/inde...t_wants_d.html
Jersey City signals it wants developer of massive Journal Square project to act, or face default




March 10, 2012
By Terrence T. McDonald

In April 2009, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy stood on a 1.5-acre site adjacent to the Journal Square PATH station and hailed an imminent twin tower project as a “great step forward” for the city. The project two towers, one 58 stories and the other 38, sitting atop a seven-story retail and parking base with a rooftop terrace would begin later that year, and be completed in three years. It’s now three years later and the site remains vacant, save for weeds and the occasional soda can or beer bottle surrounded by metal fencing.

The twin tower project appears to be nothing more than a dim fantasy, but that may all change soon. City officials say they want the heart of the city to see the same kind of development that’s occurred Downtown. “Journal Square is really the next area, and Journal Square is primed and ready for a project,” said Jersey City Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Bob Antonicello.

For years, the Journal Square project was stalled, with main investor Multi-Employer Property Trust (MEPT), of Washington, D.C., blaming the poor economy for its inability to find a partner to help it with financing, according to Antonicello. After missing an August 2011 deadline to put a shovel in the ground, and then missing a second deadline of Dec. 31, 2011, MEPT has until April Fool’s Day to get the project started in earnest, Antonicello said.

“The issue that we had really with MEPT was this process was kind of ready, aim, aim, aim, aim ... and they never fired the gun to actually go vertical,” he said. If the April 1 deadline passes without movement on the project, MEPT will be in default of its agreement with the JCRA, and the city agency can find someone else to help realize the long-awaited proposal, Antonicello added.

http://www.thejcra.org/index.php?p=p...details&pid=17


This will probably come back to life under a new developer.

____________________________________________________


http://www.globest.com/news/12_310/n...t/-319741.html
MEPT Faces April 1 Deadline for Journal Square Project

By Antoinette Martin
March 20, 2012

The city’s partners in a long-stalled project to revitalize Journal Square with up to 1,500 new housing units and extensive retail on a site adjacent to the PATH station will not meet an April 1 deadline for getting shovels in the ground, and have asked for another year to make good, Jersey City officials tell GlobeSt.com. The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency chief says the answer is probably no.

Antonicello says he expects to advise board members against accepting MEPT’s request for an extension after it defaults on the April 1 deadline, which has already been extended twice since last August. Once MEPT defaults, JCRA is legally entitled to consider new development partners.

“Our issues are significant,” Antonicello says. “The city and the Redevelopment Agency have done everything they can to create as much value at the Journal Square transit hub as possible. This project should have moved forward.”

______________________________________________



While that project struggles I don't think the prospects are great for seeing something happen soon with this new 82-story development. But when the redevelopment plan kicks in, Journal Square will be transformed...

http://www.thejcra.org/jcra_files/Fi...pment_Plan.pdf

Originally Posted by Towersteve

True Hoboken residents want to keep the city small. The path train only goes into Hoboken about 20 blocks to the south. They have a light rail you can connect to but it's not big and doesn't run enough yet.

Hoboken was the main terminus for NJ Transit trains (until the Midtown direct provided "direct" service into Penn Station). It's still a major hub, and there was a proposal a few years ago for a "Hudson Yards-like" development there as well. It could have been a major rival to development in Jersey City, though visibly there's no difference between the two cities from a waterfront point of view.



http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.s...transit_r.html


Can Hoboken withstand a 75-story building?
NJ Transit proposes skyscrapers for $500M development at train tracks

By Tricia Tirella and Timothy J. Carroll
09/29/2008

A 36-acre swath of land at the southern tip of Hoboken is an ideal location for a 75-story building, several other tall towers, and 9.2 million square feet of new development, according to NJ Transit officials and Mayor David Roberts.

Broad plans for the proposed $500 million, 20-year development were unveiled on Thursday, at the third of three public meetings held by NJ Transit to talk about their development plans for the tracks at the city's southern border. The new development would revitalize an industrial area and bring as many as 6,000 new residents to the city.

But many people believe it is out of scale for mile-square Hoboken.

At the meeting, members of a private planning firm, FXFOWLE - appointed by the city and paid for by NJ Transit - tried to convince some outraged residents that condos, office buildings, and retail and park space could "beautify the blighted area" bordering Observer Highway.

NJ Transit owns the property, but has allowed Hoboken to choose its own planning and architecture firm. The development would be completed by NJ Transit's designated company, LCOR. Mayor David Roberts said on Friday that the rail yard is a "quintessential place to put office buildings." He said that even though the proposed 75- to 80-story "signature building" for the site is about three times the height of the tallest building in Hoboken, it would be better to have it on the Hoboken side of the project than on the Jersey City side.

Needless to say, this didn't go anywhere, for now.



http://thehobokenjournal.blogspot.co...rce-press.html



http://thehobokenjournal.blogspot.co...rce-press.html