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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

833 Jersey Ave Condo Project Dead

Back in December 2006, 7 story, 84 unit residential building 833 Jersey Avenue broke ground, clearing the lot and piling up some dirt. The property sits on the border of Jersey City and Hoboken, one of the last downtown frontiers. We mostly assumed this project was dead last year when months passed with no activity on the site. Now it seems the lot and the approved plans are up for sale. The whole thing can be yours for $12 million.

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Lot Cleared On Jersey Avenue

One day there is a small shanty town, and the next an empty lot primed for new construction. The lot between Jersey Avenue and Coles Street on 16th Street was cleared of buildings and debris. We're not sure what is planned for the site, but its two blocks south of 833 Jersey Avenue, a new luxury mid-rise that recently broke ground, and across the street from housing projects. At the moment, we're hard pressed to find any information on the site, whether its simply a cleanup of the lot in anticipation of a sale, or whether there is a proposed or approved construction project for the lot.



More Photos

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

Rail Yard Redevelopment: Jersey Edition

Perhaps you may recall what now seems a lifetime ago, the fight over what to do with New York's West Side rail yards in the dirty thirties. Local residents there wanted nothing to do with redevelopment fearing high rise buildings would ruin the character of the local neighborhood. Meanwhile, its still the dirty thirties.

Well now according to Hoboken411, its New Jersey's turn to have a go at redeveloping rail yards.

"There is great concern that Mayor David Roberts has given the unofficial green light to the construction of high-rise office and condo towers running from the train station straight up Observer Highway."

Even if Roberts did green light development along the rail yards, we assume there will be a long a protracted fight to stop it. One only needs to look to the Jersey City side to see what we're talking about: Back in early 2001, there was a plan to build the Millennium Towers on the Jersey City side of the rail yards. That met with community opposition and the proposed 45 story towers are now nothing but artist's renderings in an architect's portfolio.

We're for high rises along the rail yards for several reasons. Building over railroad tracks costs quite a bit of money, and money is after all what drives development. If it won't be profitable to redevelop the rail yards, the rail yards will remain an eyesore and will prevent a contiguous urban landscape from forming.

Second, the entire neighborhood north of the Holland tunnel exit and south of Observer Highway is essentially a wasteland, just like the dirty thirties on Manhattan's West Side. The only way to begin to revitalize these areas are a few high rise towers to act as anchors.

Third, fighting these sorts of things only puts off the inevitable, which means in the interim, housing shortages (leading to higher rents) and parking shortages (leading to road rage) and underused mass transit (less incentive to increase and improve service).

Finally, there really isn't a neighborhood that would be disrupted by high rise towers along and above the rail yards. Observer highway does a great job of amputating Hoboken from Jersey City. If you've never walked from Hoboken to Jersey City as we have, you have no right to talk. Take a stroll from Washington Street to say the Newport Mall, and you'll understand what we mean about a vast wasteland. Pedestrians can easily meet with death along the route, not to mention the rather ominous empty lots on the Jersey City side of the rail yards.

In the end of course, the money will talk. If developers can find a way to turn a profit redeveloping the rail yards, then they will be. And if they can't, then they won't.

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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Bits & Briefs

Planning Board tells developers: Meet with residents
Newport Group's plan to build two structures on the Tenth Street embankment meets opposition.

Music to their ears
A twelve story tower gets approved for lot across from Shoprite.

Rescue Plan for Hospital
New Jersey's oldest hospital is about to be bankrupted.

361 Newark Ave to Triple in Height
Rumors on JCList indicate a stalled construction project could go higher.

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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Bits & Briefs



Renovations of the A&P are well under way, bringing this store up to par with its suburban counterparts, and easily making it the best in the downtown area.

Imagine Atrium, the bookstore set to open on Friday at 7pm, may yet be a let down. Peeking through a hole in the window covering newspaper revealed that at least the first third of the store will not, it appears, actually have books. It did appear though that most of the rear of the store was indeed lined with bookshelves.

The Van Vorst Park Dog Run was having fencing isntalled last night, meaning we assume, that the dog run itself is nearing completion.

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Tuesday, January 17, 2006

700 Grove

Making the Moves has a great picture of a large new building -- 700 Grove Street -- between Jersey City and Hoboken.

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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Running Late? Call Ahead: Cellular Service Restored To Tunnels

Anyone who rides the Port Athority controlled PATH and then gets on an MTA Subway knows that MTA does things better [albiet, not much better]. So last week when we wrote that MTA Tunnels had cellular signals but Port Authority Tunnels [Think Holland Tunnel] had turned off cellular service.

Apparently, we aren't the only ones who thought the idea was just a superficial way to make us feel better about security. The Port Authority has reportedly restroed service it its tunnels, proving once again that the MTA knows best and Port Authority is just a whiney six year old cousin.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Willy Wonka Gets Into Real Estate

The Van Leer Chocolate Factory and Koven Stone Works may soon be converted to condos. The sites sit just below the Heights near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel.

In total, the proposals are calling for nearly a thousand new units and 8,000 feet of retail space. The project will also include several sets of stairs connecting the Heights with the flats of Hoboken and the Holland tunnel entrance area. Several hundred Oompa Loompas will be displaced by the project.

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Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Garlic Toting Motorcyclists To Invade Holland Tunnel

The Holland Tunnel will be swarmed with 2,000 motorcycles, warns the Port Authority, as part of the annual Gooch's Garlic Run. Motorcyclists travel Morris County to Little Italy to raise money for children with "catastrophic illness." In Short: avoid the Holland Tunnel entrance tonight between 7 and 9:30 since several lanes will be closed. Vampires are also warned to stay away as the motorcyclists will be carrying garlic gloves. Tic-Tac anyone?

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New York's Sixth is a blog for the forgotten, de facto borough across the river featuring original content, commentary, and information relevant to living in Downtown Jersey City / Hoboken.


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