i wouldn't want to live in Bayonne. Has high cancer rate - gee, i wonder why? Because they get the whiff of the toxic fumes coming from Elizabeth, NJ!

i lived in bayonne for a while, nice safe little town, just not my style and the fact i have to drive through the ghetto to downtown jc made me move.

But alexen is a joke with the rent they are charging, an avg nice 1br in bayonne is around $1000, which is very good value considering you can get to exchange place in 15 mins on lightrail or driving. A lot of my coworkers moved there when they want a house and remain close to downtown.... actually it's one of the very few safe area i can think of that has easy train access to downtown jc and has houses...just not my cup of tea.

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LOL I don't remember seeing Ian being sarcastic.

But seriously the journalist should get the facts right.

People lie about their commute time, esp. those who live in burbs. They always tell you the best scenario. Commute time should be frequency adjusted. If on average your trains run every 30 minutes, the commute with a best scenario of an hour can be 50% longer.

I no longer read Times articles on real estate. I'd rather read the famous forum which has a lot more useful information.

if i recall, grove pointe was offering 2br's during the summer for net effective rents starting in the 2600's. Parking there is an additioal 200.

And they have free garage parking. How much is parking at Grove Pointe?

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Sheesh. Different strokes for different folks. Maybe they like living there? Brand new unit, cool views. And it's hardly the middle of nowhere. There is a huge shopping plaza nearby, with movie theater, restaurants, a great supermarket, and not too far from Broadway in Bayonne.

It's interesting that when people make different choices based on their own priorities, it's consider stupid. Just because they don't want to live the way you would.

Everyone's gotta live somewhere and if they're happy, good for them.

Maybe the 45 minute commute thing is just what she has to tell herself to justify living out on the peninsula for roughly the same price it costs to live downtown.

Agreed. There is absolutely NO WAY that she has a 45 minute commute. I live a five minute walk from the Grove Street Path and my door to door commute to my job at 15th and 1st is 40 minutes.

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I was just thinking the same thing! If they are paying almost $2900, what is the point of having such a long commute?? And there is NO way in hell that her commute into Manhattan is 45 minutes, all the way from Bayonne where this development is located. Just the light rail trip is 30 minutes into Hoboken, plus however long it takes her to make the train transfers (shuttle bus to HBLR, HBLR to PATH) and then the PATH trip is another 10 to 15 minutes, assuming zero wait. If I had to guess, I would say her DOOR-TO-DOOR commute is more like 1.25 hours, each way, unless her school is right next to a PATH station, in which case it could be a bit less.

So if her half of the rent is $1,400, the 2:2 unit is $2,800. The monthly HBLR pass is $58. Aren't the 2:2 units at Grove Pointe start $2900?

So she is saving $42 a month, but adding 30 minutes of commute time each day, and living in the middle of nowhere. Well done.

Condo Amenities for Renters


BOONDOCKS - The Alexan, a luxury rental complex in Bayonne, is on a former military base on an out-of-the-way peninsula jutting into the Hudson River.

The New York Times
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
October 2009

ERICA BAUMWOLL, who began work as a teacher in New York City three years ago, spent the first year of her career living with two roommates in a cramped third-floor walk-up on the Upper East Side.

Then she bolted to Hoboken. She still had two roommates, but ?way more space,? said Ms. Baumwoll, 25. She was paying more than the $1,400 per month that she had paid in Manhattan, however, and she could never find a parking space.

So last summer she came up with another solution: moving with her boyfriend, Tal Arman, 25, into a spacious two-bedroom two-bath place in a new building. She now has access to a resort-style pool, free garage parking, and a 9,000-square-foot clubhouse that offers a fitness studio, a basketball half-court, a business center, a media lounge and a game room. Her half of the rent is $1,400.

Yes, there was a catch: location. The couple?s new home is here on a peninsula jutting into the Hudson, out of the urban thick of things.

Ms. Baumwoll?s commute to Manhattan is now about 45 minutes, via shuttle bus to the light rail station, connecting to the PATH train in Hoboken. Mr. Arman?s commute takes about the same length of time, though he drives to work in Dover. ?It is worth it,? they both say of the trade-offs that came with deciding to be among the first renters at the first building at the Alexan CityView, part of a 544-unit complex being built on a former military base.

?We could never have afforded this in New York or Hoboken,? Ms. Baumwoll said, ?even if we could have found something this nice and new.?

This is precisely the way many renters are thinking and prioritizing now, says Jacqueline Urgo, the president of the Marketing Directors Inc., comparing the trend at the Alexan with her company?s experiences leasing several other new rental buildings in northern New Jersey.

?Renters today are starting to look more and more like condo buyers with their priorities, and the way they explore all their options,? said Ms. Urgo, whose company is also directing sales at four or five sites. ?They don?t just identify a location and look within the four square blocks. They are looking all over the state for the best values, more so than they ever have.?

?I see a lot of people not wanting to stretch themselves financially so much as they have in the past,? she added. ?They want the cushion of values offered further out from the city, and the amenities they are able to garner.?

At the Alexan, which opened in June, a one-bedroom can be had for less than $1,500 a month, with a month?s free rent prorated across a lease of at least 14 months. Apartments range from studios to three-bedrooms. Of the 165 units in the first building, 120 are occupied.

In Springfield, a Union County community near Summit and Short Hills, every apartment but one has been leased at the new 93-unit Skyline Ridge building, which opened in April. That building, similarly, offers Manhattan skyline views, nearby train stations, good highway access and relatively low prices.

In Saddle Brook, a small suburban town in Bergen County, a new 158-unit midrise complex with ?condo quality? finishes and luxury common space is also close to fully leased after an April opening, Ms. Urgo noted.

At that complex, called 140 Mayhill, rates are set to be about half what they would be in Manhattan, and 25 to 30 percent below those in Hoboken, said Jonathan Moore, a vice president at the Value Companies, the developer. Also, a month?s free rent was offered with a 14-month lease, and various other perks were initially offered to attract residents.

But, Mr. Moore said, the rental ?concessions? were phased out after the pace of leasing gained momentum. ?It started to feed on itself,? he said. ?People discovered us ? this suburban enclave eight miles from the city, surrounded by all major highways, train station with parking five minutes away, bus stop 1,000 feet from the building ? and we started to get strong referrals, people moving in and bringing their friends.?

As at the Alexan, whose developer is Trammel Crow Residential, and Skyline Ridge, built by Garden Homes, the majority of renters are under 40, although there is a mix of ages, Mr. Moore said.

With the economy still so shaky, all of the developers said they recognized that renters were searching beyond ?the usual suspects,? as Mr. Moore put it ? in other words, beyond glittering and trendy apartments in Hoboken and Jersey City.

Ms. Baumwoll said that although she and her boyfriend had started out looking for a place in Hoboken, ?we couldn?t afford any nice ones.? She described the reasonably priced places as having ?problems ? no dishwasher, smelled bad, floor caving in.?

Another new renter at the Alexan, the Rev. Mary Anne Glover, who is an interim regional minister for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), said she had made an intensive six-month search of rental buildings in the New York and New Jersey area to find the best price and amenity package.

Like Ms. Baumwoll, she started out in Manhattan, after moving from North Carolina two years ago. ?I had to pay $400 a month for a parking space,? said Ms. Glover, whose position requires frequent travel.

When she realized she would be staying in the area for several years, she looked for an apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. ?They wanted $1,900 for a studio, no A.C., no ceiling fan, no parking,? she said. It was at that point that she started haunting online sites like rent.com, making visits to new buildings, picking up brochures and calculating prices per square foot.

?When I found this place,? she said, ?all the little perks ? they even get the trash at your door ? I knew I had done my homework, and discovered the best situation at the best price.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/rea ... =4&sq=new%20jersey&st=cse