Ianmac, haha...very funny!

Fulop is whatever you want him to be.

Fulop is a Democrat.

But Fulop is a republican...does that mean he doesn't support mass transit?

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What is the Cali-Mack bunker?!

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And turn some of the first floor of the parking garage into street-level retail along Columbus

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No need to tear it down. It's curtain wall construction. They just need to "reface" it by replacing the curtain walls.

Didn't they have to do some environmental remediation at the Metropolis Towers site?

70-90 Columbus is a real improvement in the quality of the architecture in the area. I thought 50 Columbus was going to build another ugly tower there.

Now, if only they could find a reason to have to tear down the Cali-Mack bunker.

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Actually sandy accelerated the move:

More of the employees of the securities industry?s clearing and settlement utility now pay their taxes in the Garden State.

That?s because most of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation?s nearly 2,000-person Northeast workforce was recently moved from lower Manhattan to Jersey City, DTCC officials say.

Superstorm Sandy damaged DTCC?s headquarters office at 55 Water Street, soaking a part of physical certificate records in its vault. However, the employee move across the river to New Jersey to the Newport ?Office Center in Jersey City was planned before the storm. Displacement by the storm speeded up the relocation.

Maybe it's in Newport?

The storm also accelerated the process of moving the DTCC?s physical securities, some of which were damaged in the vault at Water Street during Super Storm Sandy. In the six weeks since the storm, the certificates have been moved to a vault another location. But, for security reasons, DTCC officials will not say where the new location is.

DTCC moves most operations to NJ

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So that's why one of the office buildings was being reinforced with barricades around the outside. Many federal office buildings in NYC have similar protection.

DTCC is making a move to Newport this year. That's a positive sign. We can get more people who live and work here and not rely on PATH. Need to attract more jobs from across the river.

More housing units means more voters. More voters means more political weight. Pro-tip: don't vote for Republicans who have no interest in investing in mass transit.

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Grove will be completely screwed once the massive JSQ towers are up.

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IMO: Grove will not be fine and Newport is already screwed. Between this and the Toll Bros and all the rest of the thousands of units that are coming soon to DTJC the PATH will not be able to handle it unless they take drastic measures.

I ride the PATH everyday (weekdays) and the WTC train is already packed when it gets to Grove. The 33rd St train is getting more and more crowded every day.

Construction on the 70 Columbus, 55-story, apartment tower and the 80 Columbus hotel is planned to begin in March 2013. The 90 Columbus apartment tower will be constructed later.

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Grove will be fine. Newport will be doomed.

The Grove Street Path Station stands ready and able to handle all those new residents.

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Yes.


http://www.dmrarchitects.com/portfoli ... php??Metropolis-Towers-61

Check out the PDF:
http://www.dmrarchitects.com/uploads/Metropolis_Towers.pdf

Back in 2006, this was sort of a thing.
Here is a version of the site plan I made back then (it matches closely to the small one in the PDF):
http://newyorkssixth.com/newyorkssixt ... future-configuration.html

These two towers will be on the empty lot between Grove Pointe and 50 Columbus, above the PATH entrance. If you look at the renderings, you can see the glass portion of the west entrance.

Residential towers are thin. There is plenty of room on that lot.

Google Maps

I'm still a little confused as to the location of these towers ... they will be WEST (closer to Grove Path) of 50 Columbus, right? It doesn't look like there is a ton of room there between the westernmost side of 50 Columbus and Marin Blvd, for 2 large towers...

Also, the large parking lots on the south side of Columbus, across the street...is there anything planned on that parcel of land?

Too bad these are going to be just rental, i need condos in this area!

yay!

They should be starting in January 2013 and expect it will be done in spring 2014.

Is 70 & 90 Columbus still happening? I heard it might break ground in 2013, any truth to that?

I too am excited that these new towers are being built; I had though that this project died out after 9/11.

As far as PATH cars, why don't they have 1-elongated car that they do in Paris or like the extra-long buses in NYC. These are a lot more spacious.

The first part of Columbus Plaza is about to open in a few months, with some retail along Columbus drive and new residents in the tower. Grove Pointe is about to open too, again with retail in a rather nice urban plaza.

I don't think the first Columbus plaza tower is particularly attractive. But its a hell of a lot better than the empty parking lot with a chain link fence that was there 3 years ago. The same with Grove Pointe-- the renovation of the plaza is a huge improvement over the broken concrete, the rats-- huge rats-- that used to live there. And when I say rats I mean rodents. Five years ago, walking from Grove Street to the waterfront meant walking along a vacant part of the city, empty parking lots, a desolate streetscape. A few months from now there will be shops, and presumably people. Instead of an endless walk through what could easily be confused with a post apocalyptic death zone, there will now be an actual urban environment with people and things going on. If metropolis towers ever builds there expansion (its been months since they cleared the old low rise section), then there will be a very urban streetscape from Grove all the way to the water. (the last empty parking lot on Columbus, just passed Greene St is Plaza 4, scheduled to begin construction this year or next).

As far as construction crews disrupting residents' lives, and disrespecting property, I do agree that the city has been to lax with penalizing those who abuse their neighbors. But that isn't the result of construction specifically, just a lack of respect and lack of enforcing laws. Meanwhile though, there are plenty of places in the downtown that are not immediately adjacent to construction construction sites.

Furthermore, the old, inadequate infrastructure needs to be replaced. No one can argue that. Certainly as far as utilities, the added influx of residents puts greater strain on the existing wiring and piping. But this stuff needs to replaced whether more people move here or not, and I much rather have twice as many voices shouting for city hall to take action than to have fewer. The downtown is less than 1/5 of Jersey City's population-- and the old guard political machine has lots of votes outside of the downtown, so despite the fact that most of the city's wealth is east of Brunswick street, its easy for city hall to pander to people living west of there.

Meanwhile, as far as the PATH system, this is one area that is a bottleneck. The new cars should help in the short term. After that, trains will probably have to run with an extra car that is only half on the platform (one set of doors on the platform). Beyond that, the platforms could probably be lengthened to accommodate longer trains, at least on the WTC-NWK line. However, besides crowding, one of the other big complaints with the PATH is late night and weekend service, and specifically, the infrequency of trains. Well the more people who are relying on the PATH, the more likely there will be additional trains running late night and on weekends.

I think its great, I can't wait. It will look very nice and hopefully make the neighborhood look less ghetto.
And for those of you that think a city has to by gritty in order to be a "real" city, I think thats BS.

I thought this project was DEAD. Wow!

Oh don't forget the two 25 story towers planned for the south side of Columbus as part of the Metropolis Towers expansion. And eventually, the 3 Toll Towers in the PAD. Yes, a lot of people will be moving in to the downtown over the next months and years. But this is a good thing.

Perhaps you really like the dollar stores and nail salons and empty store fronts along Newark Avenue. But I don't. I much rather there be varied and interesting shops, restaurants, bars, and services. A few thousand more people living in the area will make it economically viable to open new businesses in Newark Avenue.