sandwich shop that closed on jersey ave last year.

you guys are dead wrong. any buildings put up in the next 5 years will be online for the next 100 years. nyc is projected to increase in population by 1,000,000 people over the next 20+ years - where do you think these people will work? to get a major building through approvals and built in nyc can take 5-10 years. stop thinking that tomorrow - literally - is as far out as we need to think. business leaders were calling for 49 million modern sf prior to 9/11 and in a followup in 2004.

20 years at Newport (from jc reporter) Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer



The Jersey City community of Newport includes 600 acres of waterfront land, 3,922 residential units, and a major shopping mall, all between 18th Street and Sixth Street.

Over the last 20 years, it has also seen a variety of office buildings, a private elementary school, and a child care center. There are high-end restaurants, a yacht club and marina, and several small parks and playgrounds.

And it all started when New York developer Samuel LeFrak put a shovel in the ground near the Jersey City waterfront on June 4, 1986.

He had completed numerous residential projects in New York City since the 1950s. Now he has built an area of New Jersey teeming with young professionals and shoppers who enjoy views of the Manhattan skyline.

Starting Monday, Newport will kick off its 20th Anniversary celebration with the introduction of a new logo, website (www.Newport20.com) and in-mall Satellite Information Center. Over the next two months, there will be various events culminating on June 3 with the 20th Anniversary Celebration at Newport Town Square.

The company will also be looking to the future, as there is a northeastern quadrant of their property near the Hoboken-Jersey City border that is still undeveloped.
Seeing it from the beginning

The city secured, during the administration of former mayor Gerald McCann, a $40 million federal grant to construct the sewers and roads before housing and retail space was built. Young Jamie LeFrak was only 12 when the groundbreaking took place. LeFrak is now 32 and an executive within the company who is organizing the 20th anniversary celebration. (The F is capitalized in the family's last name but not in the name of the company.)

LeFrak remembers what was there before Newport.

"I remember I was driven around the waterfront when it was just abandoned, and it was pretty dangerous," said LeFrak last week. "Kind of beat-up with junkyard dogs roaming around free. It really was a no-man's land."

Now, LeFrak said, "Newport has served as the catalyst for the rest of the waterfront development for Jersey City. And it has changed the public's perception from 1986 thinking it's a dangerous place to more recent time with people thinking of it as a premier destination."

Bill Wissemann, project engineer for Newport, goes back with the project to 1984, when he was working for an engineering firm retained by the Lefrak Organization.

"The first time I came, I saw a sea of mud, and most of the warehouse buildings in the area had been demolished," said Wissemann. "In fact, they were shooting an adult movie."

Cucci said he has come to appreciate Newport all these years later. He said it was an easy relationship between the city and the LeFraks, especially when he was mayor from 1985 to 1989.

"I remember that Sam LeFrak came into my office and started yelling at me because I wanted them to put references to Jersey City on their development, since they were emphasizing this Newport City concept," said Cucci. "I told him to take his shovel and go home. And wouldn't you know it, about 24 hours later, they put Jersey City on every sign."

shortly before 9-11 a report was put out by a group of business leaders call the "group of 100" or something similar. at that time they projected the need for at least 25 million addtional square ft of office space to meet demand over the next 10 yrs.

some complications? i've been driven over the coals for thousands on a single family home. there has to be some reasonable limit to what you can be expected to spend. maybe based on income? when you are led to believe all things have been agreed too and you get sandbagged in the hpc meeting that feels like a personal attack.

i used to be a onetime defender of dan"offtherecord"w but that is officially over. he has really gotten out of control lately. he's now trying to extend the commission's purview well beyond its mandate.

i'm going to speak to the politicos and whomever else i need to in order to have him removed. if it requires a lawsuit don't be surprised when you hear about it in the jc reporter - i know he won't be as he lurks on this site.

he's turning into a mini robert moses and has been given way to much power (at least vis-a-vis small homeowners).

he IS effectively "the commission." i've never seen them vote for something he didn't sanction or vice versa. this abuse needs to end. those who've sat through the meetings in jan and feb u know what i mean.

goodbye to his long lunches back on wayne street almost everyday - when he is "off the record" checking building sites. and goodbye to this little b**ch telling people that earn their own money how to spend it.

please...give him a napkin already, he's got something on his chin.

DanL,

Of course compromises were made. They always are. You can easily connect to the Path in Hoboken or at Exchange Place. Who is going to need to connect to the Path after traveling one stop from Hoboken or three stops from Exchange Place on the light rail (Other than Pisces1979)?

The light rail is meant as a supplement to the Path not a duplicate. What would the traffic impact be if you had the light rail running down Washington? - you'd certainly be complaining about that today.

If it was built your way you'd still have all the people who currently take the light rail walking all the way from the path to the mall.

My subject heading was mean't tounge in cheek. But i really do resent the kneejerk reaction to all developers by people that don't appreciate the important role they play in turning places around and sustaining them.

All they can quack is "abatement, abatement." Those abatements do help developers sell their units for more but they also make them more afordable for people that buy them in terms of monthly carrying charges.

It was guys like Lefak that helped bring jobs here and Guys like Mocco who developed the Village Townhouse who had the balls to step up when this was a scary place. There impact should be appreciated.

In 1983 Peter Mocco developed the first major downtown Jersey City non-subsidized market rate townhouse project in 40 years. The Village Townhouse Estates, located in the Village Section of downtown Jersey City, was an instant success, and spawned such developments as Newport, Harborside and Dixon. (Taken from www.libertyharbor.com)

That said, I totally support subsidized housing for certified artists.

Are real prospects showing up for properties like this in PH? i.e., 900k?

Their guts, vision and money set downtown on the right path back in the 80's. We are all benefiting from that today -even you kneejerk anti development types wouldn't be here today if not for those great men.

Don't forget....They risked millions when this place was a hellhole.

just when i think i've witnessed the limits of human stupidity....

who is worse? a place that gets robbed "several" times with the same number or the idiots that do it?

over the last 2 years i have invested a great deal of money into this community. between the lack of a focused response on crime and the real estate tax/water/utility impact (which i didn't expect to decrease but also didn't anticipate the massive increases i've received) i'm seriously thinking of moving my business back to nyc. in truth, both cities suck for business people, but at least in nyc i'm getting what i pay for (lifestyle, police, et al.). that means the 10-12 people i was going to hire this year won't have a job thru me. that's the reality of govt's practices on the micro level. unfortunately, nj is so screwed due to shortfalls i can't see things changing without a massive income tax increase. for the record, i would be willing to pay 10-15% higher taxes for more cops on the downtown streets but that won't happen just yet. i'm disappointed with healy vis-a-vis crime at this point. as a real estate person i know that EVERYTHING revolves around that issue. i like him personnally, but he appears to be asleep at the wheel on this most important issue. i hope i'm wrong and things change soon. for some reason i have faith in him in the long run, but as a business person, i need him to understand the threat to downtown asap!

What hypocrites! When these "backroom" deals were supposedly carried our by Fulop & company during the ROZ ordinance fight certain people on this list were very vocally opposed and even wrote letters to the media. When the same techniques are used in a neighboorhood association powerplay all i hear is silence or lame platitudes....

you all got what you deserved; once the lawyers got involved the party was over.

can't wait for this spring's fight over what to plant in "hamilton park gardens!"

oh boy, all the downtown professional activists got an early christmas present. how they can work themselves up into a froth with their "sign the petion chants" and poster designs. if you want to have any crediblity at all fight to protect the one of tow stuctures in that area that have any merit, e.g., the powerhouse itself and the fortress like warehouse structure.

fighting to save 111 is complete bull at this point. the artists are gone...that's what happens they reclaim a place, it becomes popular and they move on...that's what always happened. the building is a dump. you guys are just fighting last years battle. is was complete bull to designate waldo a historic district. there are probably 20-25 buildings max in the whole are and most are just non-descript warehouse of no architecutal merit.