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Ewww! Well there are sea levels and there are c--- levels. Don't think the Army Corps of Engineers can help you with that shit.

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When high sea levels result in sewage in your apartment, sea levels get your serious attention, not a chuckle. The city is already in the process of reducing property values by reconsidering C of O's for garden apartments.

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There's nothing I hate more than unreasonable sea levels. If the sea wants to be seen as a reliable partner in Jersey City's development, I think it should pick a level and stick with it. If the sea can't hold up its end of the bargain, we should call in the Army Corps of Engineers and start building levees. I hear those boys do good work.

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Seriously, Newport isn't really the luxury community that LeFrak is pretending it is, but it's no worse than a lot of Battery Park City.

In the long run, because of history, architecture, interesting shopping (the India Square markets) and street layouts, Journal Square is probably the neighborhood in Jersey City with the most potential to be a really gorgeous, tourist-attracting neighborhood, but, right now, it's really a tourist-hostile area. For one thing, nothing aimed at tourists does anything whatsoever to tell them where Journal Square is.

Maybe an out-of-town writer could write about the glorious of Exchange Place/Paulus Hook, but, if tourists showed up there, about the only place they would figure out where to eat would be the Au Bon Pain, and the only place they could go to shop would be the pharmacy by the Essex Street light rail stop.

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I never thought about the sea levels and how they might impact my property value. Great, one more thing to worry about.

COME ON.

Seriously.

I am more worried about Newport representing this city to the rest of the world than sea levels. Because if the river rises, we're all going down.

Blub blub blub...

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In my opinion, what used to be holding Jersey City down was crime. If the city gets a grip on crime downtown and along the water, and sea levels stay reasonable, then real estate here will end up doing reasonably well, in the long run, even if the market goes through a few years of panic.

If crime really gets out of hand, or, of course, if climate change puts Jersey City under 20 feet of water, then real estate will do badly here no matter how well the rest of the world economy starts to do.

I didn't know where Fatso was pulling his money out of. His ass? I thought he was talking about stocks that are not blue chip.

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FAB, only the ones who bought stupid, like depending on increasing equity, rather than a reasonable cashflow if the rents are affordable. We're a classic mom-n-pop, and our 04 purchase of an investment 3 family will never go south since we have it on a 30 year 5.5% and the unaggressive rents easily cover expenses. Contrast that with the moron Irish carpenter mentioned in Sunday's Times who bought a Wall St studio for $720K as an investment, and plans to rent it out for $3k/month. He will lose $3-4k per month on mortage and maintainance. Even with the weak dollar he'll suffer greatly.

Just another advert to find prospective tenants to keep the landlords happy and their buildings full.
JC is a cosmetic city and I'm actually looking forward to watch how big this real estate bubble will widen, now that it has burst to see how the landlords squirm and panic.

I've also been told by a trusted stock broker to pull my money (little) out and stick it in blue chip stocks - I'm doing it today as he said the one's that would suffer the most is mom and pop investors / speculators.

Yeah, it's great that JC is getting some press in other areas, but Newport isn't the best representation of Jersey City...

What kind of a dullard would find anything worth writing about in Newport?

Having read this, I sincerely hope that Chicago residents will visit the metropolitan area with Newport Mall on their sight-seeing agenda.

A 'great city' rises in Jersey
Newport developing a name for itself along Hudson River

Chicago Sun Times
November 4, 2007

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- The Garden State has been my pathway to New York. When I was a toddler my dad was a purchasing agent at the Swift & Company meatpacking plant in Jersey City. During the 1990s I crashed at the home of the Aquanetta's lead guitarist in Hoboken, N.J., and we'd see Merle Haggard at Tramps in New York City. No destination with that story -- I just love mentioning the Aquanettas and Hag in the same sentence.

Now that Hoboken is priced up, the smart traveler checks out Jersey City.

Jersey City seems to have such a forlorn connotation. The part of Jersey City where I recently stayed is not called Jersey City, but is referred to as Newport (pop. 11,500).

The master-planned mixed use Newport is on Jersey City's rebeautified Hudson River waterfront, across from Manhattan's World Financial Center.

I stayed at the Courtyard Jersey City Marriott, adjacent to the Newport/Pavonia PATH station. I took the train to Brooklyn, Manhattan and to the Lower East Side where I drank overpriced mezcal at a bar called Death & Co. (For more, read blogs.suntimes.com). The subway ride was more efficient and safer than back in the day when I trekked back and forth from

Hoboken to New York. Trains from Newport run 24 hours daily to the World Trade Center and lower Manhattan, Greenwich Village, Chelsea and Penn Station.

Newport reminded me a bit of Oak Brook, the tony suburb west of Chicago. There's the 20-year-old 1.2 million-square-foot Newport Centre Mall with an 11-screen AMC movie theater, eight office buildings and a 443-unit condo building that is sold out.

Most important, I found ample fine dining within walking distance of my hotel. Manhattan restaurateur Sushil Malhotra serves excellent Indian cuisine at Cafe Spice, 537 Washington Blvd., (201) 533-0111, and I enjoyed the buttermilk mashed potatoes (just $3.95) while watching baseball at Dorrian's, across the street from my hotel at 555 Washington Blvd., (201) 626-6660. According to Zagat, South City Grill, 70 Pavonia Ave., at the waterfront, (201) 610-9225, is the highest rated seafood restaurant in New Jersey. South City Grill has the best raw bar in the area.
'Unique, like Manhattan'

A portion of the six mile Hudson River Waterfront Walkway is behind the hotel. The path begins at Liberty State Park on the southern end of Jersey City and heads north to Newport and on to Hoboken. I awoke early on a Saturday morning and discovered a farmers market in front of the PATH station. There's also the Experience Spa and Salon, which opened in August at 20 River Dr., (201) 626-6262. Owner Gyu Lee came to Newport because operating costs are less than what it costs at his other spa in midtown Manhattan.

"There's tax on massages, facials and everything else in New York," said Lee, a 42-year-old native of Seoul, South Korea. "There's only a tax [7 percent] on massages in New Jersey. People spend an average of $80 to $120 in my spa in Newport. And Newport is developed around the PATH train. It's more active and a mixed population is coming here. It is unique, like Manhattan."

During any visit I'd head to the shopping mall's second level and check out the vintage black-and-white pictures of the industrial Erie Terminal (circa 1950s) where the mall stands today. A Sopranoesqure regular at Dorrian's suggested this visit and it puts Newport in perspective. The photo of ramshackle warehouses and rickety piers is adorned with the Alexander Hamilton quote, "One day a great city will rise on the west bank of the Hudson River."

Newport is being developed by brothers Jamie and Harrison LeFrak, managing directors of the Lefrak Organization in Queens, N.Y., and the Simon Property Group (which manages and leases the mall). The LeFraks are grandsons of company chairman Samuel LeFrak, the monarch of post-World War II middle-income housing in New York. LeFrak died in 2003 at age 85 and gave Newport its name.

"The area, which is Newport, started life as the major railyard for the Erie Railroad," Jamie LeFrak said last week from Manhattan. "The Erie went bankrupt in the 1950s and was merged into the Lackawanna Railroad. Both businesses died and 400 acres of industrial railroad tracks, railroad equipment and rubble were left behind. Junkyard dogs."

LeFrak, 34, grew up in Manhattan. He visited Newport as the project evolved. Since construction began in June 1986 more than $2.5 billion has been invested in Newport, including new roads, sewers and storm drains.
Jackie Robinson was here

You also can see how far Newport has come by visiting Journal Square in the heart of Jersey City. The square, bus depot and PATH station is anchored by a statue of Jackie Robinson. I had forgotten Robinson became the first African American to play organized baseball on April 18, 1946, when he took the field for the Montreal Royals against the Jersey City Giants on the opening day of the International League season.

The game took place at the since-razed Roosevelt Stadium, built by the WPA at Danforth Avenue and Route 440 in Jersey City. Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley set the wheels in motion for his team's relocation to Los Angeles by playing 1956 and '57 home games at Roosevelt Stadium. (The great Ebbets Field Flannels has just produced a vintage Jersey City Giants/Roosevelt Stadium T-shirt, $24; visit www.ebbets.com.)

Across the street from the sparse Journal Square, the landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre shows periodic movies under the auspices of Friends of the Loew's (www.loewsjersey.org). The nonprofit group was formed after the Loew's was almost demolished in 1986. The theater reopened in 2003. The Loew's Jersey was designed in 1929 by Chicago-based theater architects Rapp and Rapp, who also designed the Chicago Theater. Hoboken native Frank Sinatra decided to become a singer in 1935 after seeing a Bing Crosby movie at the Loew's Jersey. Nancy Sinatra and Frank Jr. were born at Margaret Hague Hospital in Jersey City.

"One thing the Newport site came with was a subway station," LeFrak said. "When we started the subway station was closed most of the day. There was no reason to go there. But because of the subway station we were able to lead the project with residential. You could create a safe residential location from which people could ride the subway into Manhattan in only one stop. Once residential was in, it made sense for office and retail." The Pavionia/Newport PATH station expanded its hours in 1990 after a $25 million facelift.

Over Labor Day weekend, Jersey City ranked 23rd in the Priceline.com list of the 50 most popular U.S. destinations. The 187-room Courtyard Marriott was sold out on Labor Day weekend. Room rates ranged from $189 to $219 compared to around $300 a night in a comparable New York City hotel.
Part of Jersey City

It took me a while to get used to the fact that Newport was part of Jersey City. I mentioned Newport to "Jersey Boy" Bob Gaudio of the Four Seasons and he had not heard of it. LeFrak said, "There's people out there who don't realize it, although our signage says 'A Jersey City Community on the Hudson River Waterfront.' Way back when Hoboken was Newport, but Hoboken at a head start. Jersey City's reputation has undergone a change over the last 10 years. It may not be as visible in Chicago as it is in New York and New Jersey, but Jersey City was blighted in the 1960s and '70s because of the evacuation of the transportation industry. People no longer sent goods around on trains and barges to manufacture goods in lower Manhattan. Jersey City's population dropped from 300,000 in the 1950s to 200,000 in the 1970s."

According to my trusty 1939 WPA guide "New Jersey: A Guide To Its Present and Its Past" Jersey City (pop. 316,715) was advertised as "Everything for Industry." The guide says, "Its site at the upper end of New York Bay has made Jersey City the terminal for nine trunk line railroads and steamship lines. Leading industry products are soaps, pencils, cans, mouthwash, cigarettes, macaroni, meats and steel. Other factories among the hundreds in the city produce a variety of goods ranging from electric elevators to pinless diapers."

In a June 2006 report, The Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University revealed that Newport construction accounted for more than 22,500 jobs between 1986 and 2005. A block from my hotel I found the 36-story Newport Tower, one of the tallest buildings in New Jersey. Tenants include Clear Channel and USA Networks.

LeFrak added, "In the last 10 years, not only our development has been successful but many neighbors have built condos and office buildings including Donald Trump (who is building luxury high-end condos south of Newport). Financial institutions like Goldman Sachs has a presence on the Jersey City waterfront, and they all changed the nomenclature of how people perceive the place."

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/travel/634115,TRA-News-Detours04.article