I live next to Canco. The walk to PATH isn't bad - about 8 to 10 minutes. And you can hail a jitney right on the corner of St. Pauls and Kennedy.

I had to chuckle at the photos on the site, though. Did they Photoshop out all the garbage on the street - particularly on Newark Avenue? Or the gigantic smokestack that dominates the skyline and spews out toxic soup over the neighborhood each day? There isn't a green patch for miles, and if you have kids, you have to hijack the little playground at the St. John's Condos if you want a parklike experience. And I hope pretty-boy doesn't park that cherry Audi out on the street at night expecting an unbent license plate and gleaming bumpers in the morning.

What anyone buying at Canco SHOULD know is that NJDOT is about to embark on a HUGE transportation project that will completely overhaul the Charlotte/Tonnelle circle and 1 & 9 ramp areas. The project is expected to last for years - with a lot of the work done in the evenings. If what they've been doing for the last three weeks (on weekends and overnights during the week) is any indication of the "treat" we're in for, God help us. There's nothing like being awoken to the sounds of jackhammers and growling heavy equipment at 3 am, not to mention the smells, dust, lead paint by-products of demolition and construction. Oh, and I checked their website, and they are fully allowed to do this to "mitigate traffic disturbances."

My favorite line:
"and two dozen plasma television screens that will show live scenes of the Manhattan skyline as well as community news flashes."

I don't know why they didn't incorporate views of the Eiffel Tower and the Sphinx while they were at it manufacturing fake "views."
Any good views showing the BOTTOM of the Pulaski skyway.

Yah GOTTA LOVE Real Estate hype.

Isn't it a rather tedious uphill walk to get to Journal Square PATH which is the only route to the Manhattan job engine. Or do you climb up the skyway to hail a bus on 1&9 for a ride through the tunnel?

(I haven't been to Little India in a couple years so I cannot comment on whether Newark Avenue looks much worse than before...the stretch down the hill from JFK Boulevard was never much of anything to start with. Have to get up there and do a buffet lunch soon.)

so, has anyone here purchased at the canco lofts and willing to share your experience dealing with the developer re: negotiating prices?

I agree that the pictures of the neigborhook is ridiculous. Looks more like Newport than JSQ. This is more like the "neighborhood" picture:

http://members.tripod.com/hollyzell/images/hallo_driveway4.jpg

Love that Web Site !!!

those windows must be painted with scenery - unless they've removed the 1/9 pulaski extension...

the neighborhood photos on the website are hilarious. like any of them are realistic. ridiculous.

Work started on the CanCo lofts some time ago. Not sure how this is new news...

Work Starts for Canco Condo Conversion
By Eric Peterson
July, 10 -- Globe St.

Canco Lofts

JERSEY CITY-Work is under way on a major conversion project that will turn the five-building, one-million-sf former American Can Co. (Canco) plant here into 200 residential condos initially, and more than 550 units at build-out. The project is being done by Coalco Construction Services, a New York City-based division of Russia’s Coalco Development. The cost of the project hasn’t been released.

Dubbed Canco Lofts, the project will remake a complex of five industrial buildings constructed in the 1920s. The first phase of 200 units involves two buildings totaling 380,000 sf, and will include a small retail component, and a feature of the project will be the 10,000-sf Canco Lofts Residents Club. First-phase units are slated for delivery in Q2 2008.

“This building was a big employment center, but it had spent the past 20 years aging and decaying,” said Mayor Jerramiah Healy at a ceremonial American flag raising at the site. “There are great things going on in Jersey City, and the revitalization of this building is another example of that.”

American Can occupied the property from the 1920s until 1974, and the site is credited with being the birthplace of the modern aluminum can. Known for its distinctive saw-toothed roofline and art deco details, it was used by several commercial tenants after Canco departed. Coalco bought the property three years ago and set in motion the current redevelopment plan.

“We realize the critical role this building played in the history of this city and are proud to revitalize this structure,” says Edward Yorukoff, director of marketing for Canco Lofts. “By restoring the architectural details and industrial designs that make this building so well-known, we are able to breathe new life into a landmark structure.”

The property is located at 50 Dey St., to the west of Downtown. Its other amenities include 14-foot ceilings in its residential units and a directly accessible parking structure.

My dad worked and retired from the American Can Company, and labored at the St. Paul's plant for twenty five years. That building was and probably still is a toxic nightmare. Screw the view of Manhattan, if the CO2 emissions from the Pulaski Skyway/ Tonelle Ave. traffic doesn't kill you, then the toxicity of the Canco building will certainly do the trick.

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Update: the contact page has now been corrected to say Jersey City, NJ. Thanks, Canco folks!

Back off topic, Little India has many excellent places to get chaat. Two of them, Satkar and Bengali Sweet House, are actually recommended as some of the best places in the NY/NJ area by the NYT (see Mumbai to Midtown: Chaat hits the spot).

"I love Little India, as far as I am concerned it's the jewel in JC's crown"

Is this the area where the bongo guys hang out? Because if it is then that 'jewel' might just turn out to be cheap zirconia.

http://groups.google.com/group/cancolofts

i created a google group to help organize the info

Quote:

Back to the original topic - I found this in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/rea ... 88&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In the Region | New Jersey
Both Ultramodern and Dated
Paul Hawthorne for The New York Times
INDUSTRIAL FLAVOR A model apartment at CanCo Lofts in Jersey City, which will ultimately have 500 condos.

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DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: April 22, 2007
JERSEY CITY

Skip to next paragraph

Paul Hawthorne for The New York Times
A detail of the building’s Art Deco exterior.
THE American Can Company factory building here — which was the birthplace of the modern American beer can — is undergoing conversion into more than 500 condominium lofts that will retain a distinct industrial flavor, spiked with ultramodernity.

The new condos will have a look that is both retro and sleek, according to architects from SBLM of Manhattan, the company hired by the developer, Coalco New York, to transform the million-square-foot Art Deco-era industrial building.

Its classic factory elements, like ceilings that soar up to 24 feet and concrete columns as big around as giant redwoods, will be set off by white-lacquered kitchen cabinetry, wide-plank white-oak flooring and stone countertops in every unit, said David Nicholson of SBLM.

“It has been quite fascinating working on an adaptive reuse like this,” Mr. Nicholson said. “The building has such strong character of its own, and we are trying to play to that, honor that, while at the same time going to the cutting edge with the apartment designs.”

A separate architecture firm, LOT-EK of Manhattan, was hired to create a “destination” lobby at the condominium project, called CanCo Lofts. It has come up with a startling low-tech-high-tech design that combines stacked lumber used as benches and “ceiling sculptures”; a wall decorated with industrial piping; extensive glass; and two dozen plasma television screens that will show live scenes of the Manhattan skyline as well as community news flashes.

“This wall will truly be a spectacle,” said Giuseppe Ligano of LOT-EK, describing the wall of piping as reminiscent of a Chinese screen. It will be lighted from behind so that from across the room the piping appears as stripes on an interior wall.

The TV screens mounted on the wall may be viewed as art in addition to their role as instruments of communication, Mr. Ligano said. “For one thing, they can be used creatively to repeat the view of New York, so that it seems to be everywhere in the room, or splitting it into fragments so the screens make a whole ‘painting’ or to produce a panorama.”

In addition, five “conversation areas” will be created around the lumber benches, whose seating section will be wrapped in leather. The lobby will also have a mailroom, with desks for opening mail.

The CanCo building is a natural haven for commuters — nine blocks from Journal Square and a PATH station, from which passengers can reach Wall Street in less than 15 minutes. So the screens will also constantly report on weather and traffic, said Edward Yorukoff, marketing director of Coalco New York, a division of Coalco International, a diversified development company based in Russia.

Coalco will open sales next month on the first 100 loft units. Construction has begun after a long phase of environmental cleanup at the property and completion of a sales lobby and model kitchens, baths and a loft space, Mr. Yorukoff said.

One-, two- and three-bedroom units will be offered at prices ranging from the high $200,000s to the upper $600,000s, Mr. Yorukoff said. The apartments come with garage parking, numerous amenities and shuttle service to the PATH train.

The first residents could move in by the end of the year, he said.

The building, which was shut down as a can factory in the 1970s and has mostly been empty since then, is a local landmark. With its five towers, tall smokestacks and stone Deco details, the brick structure is part of a historic industrial district established by the city.

The developers have picked up on the theme with a piece of artwork installed inside the sales lobby’s front door: a wall-hung sculpture composed of paint cans of a type once manufactured on the site.

The building’s facade will be completely renovated, according to Coalco’s president, Mikhail Kurnev.

The lofts will be designed to be exceptionally large and roomy, he said, with period 14-foot ceilings — 17 feet to 24 feet on upper floors — and eight-foot-high doors, plus the oversize windows typical of old factories. The baths will have oversize showers and soaking tubs, glass mosaic tile on the walls and cove lighting.

A 10,000-square-foot residents’ club will feature a large fitness center, a yoga and Pilates studio and a half court for basketball. In addition, the community will offer a children’s play center, screening room, pet park and pet spa, game room for billiards and video games and an event room with an outside terrace.

The building’s basement, formerly a rail station, will become a residents’ parking garage, accessible by elevator, Mr. Kurnev said.

LOT-EK, the lobby designer, is also designing a garden area outside the lobby, which will have a glass wall on the garden side. Although the setting for CanCo Lofts, situated at 50 Dey Street just off the clogged traffic artery of Tonnelle Road, is highly urban, the building is designed to offer a calm oasis to its residents, the developer said.

From upper floors, the views of Manhattan and the NewJersey coast and, westward, of towns perched on rolling hills are extraordinary. From the now-gutted upper floors of one of the towers — empty save for concrete support columns 12 feet in circumference — the full 360-degree panorama is available.

“It’s a good time to shop for the view you might like to own,” said Mr. Yorukoff, who added that prospective buyers would be allowed to take a look, if willing to don a hard hat.

He said he expected the lofts to be most attractive to buyers in their 20s and 30s, probably with no children or only a toddler, who might want to use the loft space in their units as either work space or spare bedrooms.

I love Little India, as far as I am concerned it's the jewel in JC's crown. It's vibrant, colorful and in-your-face. If it was to become homogenized and boring like 6th Street or Curry Hill in Manhattan then it truly woiuld be a loss.

why is everyone picking on indians? its not like we are talking about those filthy uneducated pakisatini after all.


free kashmir now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote:

since you've got your Merriam-Webster out, momoo, here's a word you might have wanted to use that would make your last sentence make some sense:

rel·e·vant (rěl'ə-vənt)
adj. Having a bearing on or connection with the matter at hand.

Relative to the American Can Company building, Little India is no more or less clean, but it is certainly more safe, more interesting, and less isolated. I don't recall worm ever suggesting Little India couldn't use improvement, just as about all of Newark Avenue could use improving, including downtown.

Is Little India the cleanest section of the city? Nope. Is it "disgusting"? If you find Indian food, culture, and people disgusting, then I'd venture to guess you'd be prompted to say it was.

You really need to learn the definition of "relatively." I am not racist, and I made no claims of how dirty or filthy Little India is relative to other areas in Jersey City. I am sure there are other areas in JC that are more filthy; however, we are not discussing those areas. And given Little India's proximity to the American Can Building, comments regarding such area are in fact......relative!

Quote:


Wake up, there is definitely room for improvement in Little India and stating the obvious does not make one a racist.

Little India, while we're on the topic, IS very filthy. There's a thick layer of grease and embedded dirt covering everything up there. But that has more to do with the food than the people. Take a look outside any poorly maintained restaurant and you'll see slippery, gross, grease covered sidewalks (that attract cockroaches right inside). One of the worse offenders downtown is Marco & Pepe. They have a nasty grease trail coming from their kitchen to their basement and their sidewalk is all falling apart. Little India has it worse because there are SO many greasy restaurants.

Quote:

And you obviously didn't grow up anywhere in JC either. Little India is no dirtier than many other parts of JC. Ever stroll around Christopher Columbus, Palisades Ave or Bergen? The fact that this city is dirty has more to do with poor city infrastructure i.e. not enough trash receptacles and a failure of this city to ticket offending businesses/persons responsible than your limited assessment of a particular area. If you want to keep up your rant about how dirty little India is, I think you might have better luck at your next klan meeting and not on a thread that is [unsuccessfully] supposed to be about the American Can building.

Then I would imagine it looks "relatively" clean. I did not grow up in a third world country, so in my eyes it looks "relatively" filthy.

Quote:

_________________

Nasty? You mean Dirty? As in litter, foul odor, or such?

I grew up in the Third World - and it looks relatively clean.

Yes, I'm smiling.

No bias whatsoever towards Indians, or anyone else for that matter, but Little India in JC is pretty nasty. Can you or anyone else tell me otherwise while keeping a straight face?

Quote:


+1.5

Quote:

wow, you're demanding, aren't you?

maybe people aren't falling all over themselves to answer the prissy demands of somebody ignorant and bigoted enough to post this:

Quote:

I am still waiting on some sort of comparison with the Beacon??? Which is the better investment?

Quote:

Anybody know what the skinny on this historic district is? Paging JPHurst!

By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: April 22, 2007
JERSEY CITY

Paul Hawthorne for The New York Times


THE American Can Company factory building here — which was the birthplace of the modern American beer can — is undergoing conversion into more than 500 condominium lofts that will retain a distinct industrial flavor, spiked with ultramodernity.

The new condos will have a look that is both retro and sleek, according to architects from SBLM of Manhattan, the company hired by the developer, Coalco New York, to transform the million-square-foot Art Deco-era industrial building.

Its classic factory elements, like ceilings that soar up to 24 feet and concrete columns as big around as giant redwoods, will be set off by white-lacquered kitchen cabinetry, wide-plank white-oak flooring and stone countertops in every unit, said David Nicholson of SBLM.

“It has been quite fascinating working on an adaptive reuse like this,” Mr. Nicholson said. “The building has such strong character of its own, and we are trying to play to that, honor that, while at the same time going to the cutting edge with the apartment designs.”

A separate architecture firm, LOT-EK of Manhattan, was hired to create a “destination” lobby at the condominium project, called CanCo Lofts. It has come up with a startling low-tech-high-tech design that combines stacked lumber used as benches and “ceiling sculptures”; a wall decorated with industrial piping; extensive glass; and two dozen plasma television screens that will show live scenes of the Manhattan skyline as well as community news flashes.

“This wall will truly be a spectacle,” said Giuseppe Ligano of LOT-EK, describing the wall of piping as reminiscent of a Chinese screen. It will be lighted from behind so that from across the room the piping appears as stripes on an interior wall.

The TV screens mounted on the wall may be viewed as art in addition to their role as instruments of communication, Mr. Ligano said. “For one thing, they can be used creatively to repeat the view of New York, so that it seems to be everywhere in the room, or splitting it into fragments so the screens make a whole ‘painting’ or to produce a panorama.”

In addition, five “conversation areas” will be created around the lumber benches, whose seating section will be wrapped in leather. The lobby will also have a mailroom, with desks for opening mail.

The CanCo building is a natural haven for commuters — nine blocks from Journal Square and a PATH station, from which passengers can reach Wall Street in less than 15 minutes. So the screens will also constantly report on weather and traffic, said Edward Yorukoff, marketing director of Coalco New York, a division of Coalco International, a diversified development company based in Russia.

Coalco will open sales next month on the first 100 loft units. Construction has begun after a long phase of environmental cleanup at the property and completion of a sales lobby and model kitchens, baths and a loft space, Mr. Yorukoff said.

One-, two- and three-bedroom units will be offered at prices ranging from the high $200,000s to the upper $600,000s, Mr. Yorukoff said. The apartments come with garage parking, numerous amenities and shuttle service to the PATH train.

The first residents could move in by the end of the year, he said.

The building, which was shut down as a can factory in the 1970s and has mostly been empty since then, is a local landmark. With its five towers, tall smokestacks and stone Deco details, the brick structure is part of a historic industrial district established by the city.

The developers have picked up on the theme with a piece of artwork installed inside the sales lobby’s front door: a wall-hung sculpture composed of paint cans of a type once manufactured on the site.

The building’s facade will be completely renovated, according to Coalco’s president, Mikhail Kurnev.

The lofts will be designed to be exceptionally large and roomy, he said, with period 14-foot ceilings — 17 feet to 24 feet on upper floors — and eight-foot-high doors, plus the oversize windows typical of old factories. The baths will have oversize showers and soaking tubs, glass mosaic tile on the walls and cove lighting.

A 10,000-square-foot residents’ club will feature a large fitness center, a yoga and Pilates studio and a half court for basketball. In addition, the community will offer a children’s play center, screening room, pet park and pet spa, game room for billiards and video games and an event room with an outside terrace.

The building’s basement, formerly a rail station, will become a residents’ parking garage, accessible by elevator, Mr. Kurnev said.

LOT-EK, the lobby designer, is also designing a garden area outside the lobby, which will have a glass wall on the garden side. Although the setting for CanCo Lofts, situated at 50 Dey Street just off the clogged traffic artery of Tonnelle Road, is highly urban, the building is designed to offer a calm oasis to its residents, the developer said.

From upper floors, the views of Manhattan and the NewJersey coast and, westward, of towns perched on rolling hills are extraordinary. From the now-gutted upper floors of one of the towers — empty save for concrete support columns 12 feet in circumference — the full 360-degree panorama is available.

“It’s a good time to shop for the view you might like to own,” said Mr. Yorukoff, who added that prospective buyers would be allowed to take a look, if willing to don a hard hat.

He said he expected the lofts to be most attractive to buyers in their 20s and 30s, probably with no children or only a toddler, who might want to use the loft space in their units as either work space or spare bedrooms.

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Worm,

Kiss my tail. Four syllable words don't scare me....

Quote:

+1 on that lecxe

Olive, Non is a great person, he tells it as he sees it and has loads of useful information he gives to potential new residents of the area, too bad you won't be getting any of it now...