Hi,
I sent you a PM with the details of our two-bedroom for rent in Paulus Hook. I'm the owner, not a broker. Take a look!

Thanks!

Check your PM

I take great offensive to your comment about just getting the backflow preventor already. Speaking for a small building that is going to be hit with a $30,000 cost for installation, this is crippling. We are looking to talk to other buildings who have gone through with installation or those weighing their options. Please keep your snarky comments to yourself.

Hi,
I'm looking for other owners/buildings who are dealing with Jersey City trying to enforce the backflow preventor code. Our building is looking to talk with others going through this to talk about how they are dealing with it and share with others what we've done. Please PM me if you want to chat.

Thanks.

I will comment on the pizza. My wife and I have lived in Paulus Hook for six years and ate pizza from La Rustique on a number of occasions. I would say that the pizza there was decent, at best...fresh ingredients but fairly bland. We grabbed a couple of slices from Paulus Hook Brick Oven Pizza on Saturday and were VERY pleased. It is much better pizza. Better sauce, more flavorful. As someone who lives a hundred feet from its front doors...I will be making many visits. It is VERY good pizza...although nothing will ever touch a Sicilian slice at Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst.

Bump

Here is the video link to a story on Coach Bob Hurley and St. Anthony High School basketball that ran this morning on CBS News Sunday Morning.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/03/sunday/main4917067.shtml

ON THE WATERFRONT

By MAX GROSS

May 8, 2008 --

ASK Hemant Phul where he lives, and you won't get an entirely accurate answer.

"I invariably say I live in New York City," says the owner of the Earth NYC nightclub in Chelsea. "That's when they pry, and they say, 'Where in Manhattan?'"

That's where the smoke and mirrors come in. " 'Well, it's not exactly Manhattan,' I say. 'It's the other side of Manhattan.' "

To say the least. Phul and his wife, Bhavana, have just moved into a $700,000-plus, two-bedroom condo in the massive, mixed-used Gull's Cove development - in Jersey City.

But Phul is on to something when he says it's the "other side of Manhattan." Geographically speaking, the Jersey waterfront is a heck of a lot closer to Manhattan than, say, Park Slope. And even as the broader real-estate market looks wobbly, New Jersey's Gold Coast - located directly across from New York City on the Hudson River - has seen thousands of condos, rentals and townhouses steadily hitting the market. And units here have sold well, despite prices that are very high by New Jersey standards.

Numerous new luxury buildings in Jersey City and Hoboken have been luring buyers like the Phuls into choosing Jersey apartments over similarly priced units in areas like Brooklyn and Manhattan's Financial District. And if you look at the major projects that have risen along the Jersey waterfront in the last few years, you'll find brisk sales and few price reductions.

Last year, for example, the still unfinished 77 Hudson in Jersey City set a state record when it sold a $6 million combined condo unit. The Beacon development, also in Jersey City, has sold 90 percent of the apartments in the first two of its five buildings (the third went on the market last weekend with units starting at $340,000 and going up to $2.1 million).

The W Hoboken, which is part-condo, part-hotel, sold all 40 of its condos at around $1,100 per square foot. Also in Hoboken, Hudson Tea (with one-bedroom units starting at $475,000 and duplexes going as high as $2.3 million) has sold more than 90 percent of its units in the two buildings that have been released. Down the road at Maxwell Place (with prices from $600 to $1,350 per square foot), its entire first building sold out and the second, 372-unit phase, including 10 townhouses, is more than 90 percent sold.

While sales might not be as swift as they were in 2004 and 2005, "Our 2008 prices are significantly higher than 2004 or 2005," says Benjamin Jogodnik, senior vice president at Toll Brothers, which is building Maxwell Place and Hudson Tea. "We have had no price reductions."

In addition to New York-level pricing, "There are top architects and designers like Andres Escobar and Costas Kondylis and Rem Koolhaas," says Jackie Urgo, president of the Marketing Directors, which is selling Trump Plaza Jersey City.

The 55-story Trump Plaza tower, the tallest residential building in New Jersey, has sold 385 of its 444 units, with some units going for more than $1,000 per square foot and prices averaging more than $700 per square foot. Another Trump Plaza Jersey City building, with around 400 units, is planned.

And Trump Plaza is just one of the big boys on the block. Both Kondylis and Escobar had a hand in Jersey City's 50 Columbus, a fully leased 400-unit rental development; Koolhaas is working on a 1.2 million-square-foot mixed-use project at 111 First St. in Jersey City.

But those are small compared to enormous projects like the Upper Grand in Hoboken, a mix of rentals and condos that constitute 15 different buildings and 2,500 homes on 32 acres.

And there's Liberty Harbor and Port Imperial, which are as much planned neighborhoods as they are developments. Liberty Harbor will include 7,000 to 10,000 homes over 80 acres of Jersey City; Port Imperial sprawls from Weehawken to West New York and has upscale developments within the development like Henley on Hudson, which has one- and two-bedrooms starting at $499,000 and townhouses priced up to $3 million; and 55 Riverwalk Place, with 348 luxury rentals starting at $1,970 for a studio.

So how has the Jersey waterfront managed to keep its head above water? Part of the reason is that cheaper land has allowed developers to throw in all sorts of extras. Many projects are right along the water, and many have retail and restaurant space. Buyers simply get more for their money here.

But it's also important to note that while buildings like Trump Plaza, the W and the Beacon have done well, they were all set in motion long before the credit crunch hit.
"Credit's very tight right now," says David Barry, the president of Applied Development Company, which developed the W Hoboken. "I think [the W] sold for very fair value. But, obviously, I'm happy we sold them a year ago and not today."

Nevertheless, Phul isn't worried about a downturn. "For Gull's Cove, if everything goes well, there's going to be 750,000 square feet of retail space; it's like a completely planned neighborhood," he says. "I only see this place appreciating . . . it's a long-term investment."
And maybe in a few years, he won't be embarrassed telling people where he lives.

Ground-breaking in June. First occupancy Fall '08.