Quote:

You haven't LIVED til you spent a Winter with both upstairs and downstairs gone for the entire season. With a 50 degree concrete slab above you and below you, you are in misery no matter HOW much pricey electric heat you try to pump in. Ten minutes after your 5,000 Watt heater kick off you are cold again. I had 2 Winters like that...I'll move before it happens again.

I once did a quick calculation of the heat required to warm my ceiling or myy floor. THe result was 6,728 BTU's to raise the temperature of one slab one degree. It would be 14,000 BTU's for both...and that's one degree. An empty apartment in my complex often has temperatures in the low 50's. It is a case of beggar thy neighbor at its worst.

A neighbor on my floor had a $418 electric bill for January...and she keeps her place chilly.

And always remember that gas heat is less than a third the cost of electricity, maybe much less but I haven't done the numbers with the current higher electric rates.

For me, I will NEVER move into a place with motel style heating again.

http://hudsonreporter.com/view/full_s ... ndary_stories_left_column


Learning about Hudson County history
Chamber of Commerce brings theme to networking events

by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff Writer
Hudson Reporter

A BEACON OF HISTORY ? The Beacon, the complex of buildings built in the 1930s as the Jersey City Medical Center, is now a luxury mixed-use development. A tour of the Beacon is part of a Hudson County Chamber of Commerce networking event that be held this Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.


The Beacon, a complex that was originally built in the 1930s as the Jersey City Medical Center, is now a luxury mixed-use development that has won accolades for its historic restoration. And next week it will be part of a history tour.

The Hudson County Chamber of Commerce kicks off their new Hudson County History Series with the first event highlighting ?The History of Jersey City? at the Beacon on Montgomery Street in downtown Jersey City. The event will be held this Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The series is meant as a way to bring local history and business networking under one roof.

Tuesday?s kickoff will start with a tour of the Beacon given by Ulana Zakalak, the Beacon?s Historic Restoration Consultant, to show off the details that were preserved in the building such as the original chandeliers. After the tour, there will be a book signing by Cynthia Harris & Leon Yost, co-authors of the recent book ?Changing Jersey City: A History in Photographs,? and then a lecture on Journal Square history, ?A Suspended Place,? given by Dr. Eric Friedman, a dean at Hudson County Community College.

_____________

The event will be held this Tuesday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
________


Brian J. Dunlap, president and CEO of the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce, said, ?The preservation of such an iconic landmark is a pleasure for us to showcase and share with the public, and will serve as an ideal setting for our business network event. We?re confident the public will take advantage of this unique opportunity to experience this wonderful and compelling look into Jersey City?s storied past.?

The chamber, which has served the Hudson County business community since 1888, has 250 companies with over 1,000 people and businesses as members. Among them is Metrovest Equities, the development company responsible for the Beacon.

Dunlap said the chamber is also planning events for the history series in other towns such as Bayonne, Weehawken, and Hoboken over the next year.

The business of history

Dunlap, who became the chamber?s president and CEO last summer, said in creating the history series he was looking to ?invigorate? the Chamber of Commerce and bring ?pride? and ?possible theme? to their business networking events. Dunlap also looked at the rich history of Hudson County, and especially Jersey City, which is celebrating its 350th anniversary this year.

?I felt there were some opportunities to have an interesting theme and event around the history of Jersey City,? Dunlap said. ?And since the chamber is countywide, we looked to show off the history in different towns in the county.?

Dunlap also said the Beacon?s developer, George Filopoulos, wanted to show off what he has done in terms of the restoration.

The History of Jersey City takes place Tuesday, March 23, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 4 Beacon Way (at Montgomery St. and Mill Road) in Jersey City. Hors d?oeuvres and beverages will be served. The registration fee is $25 for Hudson County Chamber of Commerce members and $40 for non-members. Payment is required upon registration. Convenient valet parking will be available for $5.

To register, contact Janet Estremera at (201)386-0699, ext. 27. You can email her at janet.estremera@hudsonchamber.org, or visit www.hudsonchamber.org.

For more information on The Beacon, visit www.thebeaconjc.com.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.

Quote:

I see your points but I'm sorry, I still think individual unit heating/AC units are preferable. One thing not mentioned in regards to communal air/water systems is that when the air conditioning and water heating systems break (which they inevitably do from time to time) then the entire building has to do without. I would NOT want to be on the homeowner's association board when that happens.

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Parking is not included. It is $150/month for valet.

I think the maint. is based off square footage. I have a 1BR and pay about $600 per month. When i was shopping around years ago i found that a comparable sized 1BR downtown with some of the same amenities had maint around the $400 range. I dont claim this is an accurate benchmark, it might have changed and/or i might not have seen a representative sample (Dixon, Portifino, etc, no brownstones).

For my situation, I looked at the total package and was able to more than make up for the difference in maintenance by saving on heat/ac, water, dropping my gym membership (there is one here), and the tax abatement made up a lot of ground. I did not factor in the specific amenities at the Beacon that other places didn?t have. I know I personally wasn?t and wouldn?t pay for these things if they were not provided to me?but they are nice to have.

So taking the sales price out of the equation the monthly costs for me to live at the Beacon was less than what i looked at downtown. Since I think the maint is based on square footage, i have no idea if this same analysis holds true for a 2BR, I didnt look at those. Maybe this logic will help you to figure the same for a 2BR. Good luck!

For heating and air coonditioning, central units are VERY comdfortable and are able to control humity and clean the air better than individual units.
Huge central units can run on the cheapest fuel, like natural gas powered air conditioning, they are quiet and can have huge efficiencies. I have through the wall units that rival the takeoffs at Kennedy for the noise they make.

Communal electric metering has been far cheaper historically presumably to attract bulk buyers in the fist place and to cut down on the cost of having individual meters, individual meter readings monthly, individual paying of hundreds of bills, etc. Arranging accounts every time a person moves in or out. Buying in bulk has been a lot cheaper.

What you can get with separate utilities is for someone to go away for the winter and the poor slob underneath him having to heat BOTH apartments in order to be comfortable. Same for Summer if you try to be comfortable while everyone around you has his air conditioner off.

Central heating was the standard for a half century until cheapskate defvelopers decided that they could save money by going back to primitive times. I'm thinking Victorian slums where you put a shilling into a burner and you got a certain number of minutes of gas heat.

For hot water, we all agree that gas is about ta third the cost of electricity...so gas is the wise choice. BUT having 300 apartments with separate gas lines is not the safest thing in the world. Better to have a big boiler in the "cellar" or an adjoining powerhouse. Also hundreds of even electric water heaters pose the danger of inevitable leaks as the tanks age posing a risk that can ruin lots of apartments

But yes, you will get the occasional wastrel who has heat coming in at maximum and all his windows wide open in January. I guess that's what co-op boards and condo associations are for.

The overview is that the best buildings have central heat and air conditioning, check out Park Avenue or Fifth Avenue. This "individual metering" crap is a very recent development that was once relegate to fleabag motels.

And of course for HUGE complexes, you can have self-contained cogeneration systems that make their own electricity and use the "waste heat" for heating and air conditioning. This IS the wave of the future as utility rates soar.

Quote:

I don't understand why the inclusion of your air conditioning and water charges would be a desirable thing. If I am a person that tends to use less air conditioning why would I want to subsidize the air conditioning of my neighbor who blasts the air conditioning all day long. Same thing goes for water usage. I'd much rather have my own utilities that I pay for myself. The inclusion of the air conditioning and water in the common charges will just encourage people to waste water and energy. And including those costs in the common charges will just lead to the common charges increasing earlier and faster than they otherwise would.

Zeina, you should take notes, it will help you to remember, that, or don't speak, if you don't remember because you are just spreading misinformation. Valet Parking at the Beacon is $150 per month. Beacon owners do not ay taxes, they pay Pilot (payment in lieu of taxes). That is for 30 years, so its not likely to go up, at least, not in the same way as taxes might. I don't know what was being referred to for $75 dollars, but it wasn't the maint. fee or taxes, maybe an estimate of your electric utility bill? Heating, cooling and water are included in your monthly maint. fee at the Beacon, electric is not.

All I know is that the Beacon is totally haunted. The spirits better cover at least half the HOA or its not worth it at all.

I talked to the agent when that unit first went on the market. As I recall, taxes were not included in the fee and were about $74 per (month or year, can't remember.) Obviously, they will go up substantially in the future. Parking was also not included and was $100-$150 per month I think.

Thank you jmcee.
That inclusion of heat, hot water, and air conditioning, makes the "HOA" more reasonable. (Just for reference, in the SHORE down at Newport the same amenities go for about $650/month for a 2 bedroom...but no parking...$160 or so extra.)
Does the Beacon HOA include parking? If so, that would just about equalize the two.

As we all know these utitilities are of paramount importance in the face of our deregulated monopolistic electricity pricing, currently at $.19/kwhr and climbing fast annually.

Anything on the taxes or 'in lieus" for a 2 bedroom unit?

Quote:

Yes, they are included. The owner/tenant pays only for the electricity used by the fan which pushes the hot/cold air into the unit. And for the other electricity for lights and appliances. There are no individual hot water heaters in the units. This is the same setup as Trump where I live now, I pay less than $50 a month in total for utilities there too.

So,
If I read this right, the heat, hot water, and air conditioning for the Beacon, however supplied, ARE included in the Beacon's monthly HOA fee?
Or not?

also facts need to be checked for Dixon Mills.....

'For Dixon Mills was from what friends who lived me told me all the heating and air conditioning was electric so the bill could get high, it might be gas now, but probably not. '


Not true. The hot water for the heat and the cooling for the AC are not part of each unit's PSEG bill but the monthly maintenance fee. The unit owner pays the electric for the fan, and for their personal hot water heater for the hot water in the unit.

"For Dixon Mills was from what friends who lived me told me"

The Facts need some checking. Each unit at the Beacon has it's own electric hook-up and individual thermostat. I lived there for a year and can confirm my bills for the washer/dryer, kitchen appliances and light bulbs were very low around $50/mo for a 800sf 1br. The only monthly cost for heating and cooling was the electric fan which pushes the hot and cold air into the unit through the duct work.

Those maintance fees yes are very high as everything is include plus all the amenties like the pool which they have a life guard which must get paid as well as the insurance for that. Original Plans was to preserve only the exterior so they won't have everything including the electric besides the heat and hot water might even be electric and not gas which is even more expensive for the heating if it is controlled within each unit, and a set temperature included from my understanding. Most buildings will at least have the electricity broken off, but I do believe with it since rewiring the entire place was going to be so costly that is why they just included it. Consider such amenties like air conditioning, washer and dryers, dishwashers and other things that can use a good amount of electricity year round at $60-75 a month or so each unit per month on the studio and 1 bedrooms and more on the two bedrooms all in proportion to the size of the unit. Also you have to remember there is insurance as well as funding for the reserves for the future of the building that is included in it. Both of those I am sure could be around $200 or so of that amount. Even though it is seen as a new building as condos they still want to have those reserves in case anything goes wrong. Also high is the Big Pre-war condo building on Kennedy Blvd and Duncan Ave The Hague which is around $500 for the one bedrooms so the Beacon is kind of in line with that building for its maintenance and it doesn't really have any amenities at all, nor parking except for like 5 cars or so from what I heard. And the electric isn't included there.

For Dixon Mills was from what friends who lived me told me all the heating and air conditioning was electric so the bill could get high, it might be gas now, but probably not. So I would be surprised with the Beacon having that for calculating the maintenance amount.

I guess by "subsidiary" I meant Fannie Mae owned exclusive listing site run by Fannie Mae rather than a listing service like Realtor.com or Zillow or the dozens of others.

Subidiary seems a good enough term for HomePath but I guess it's all definitional.

Thank you for the HOMESTEPS tip. I think one of these two sites will get me my next home. I like a bargain and I think I can handle and might enjoy a lot of fix-up jobs.

Fannie Mae doesn't have any subsidiaries. Homepath is just the name of the website where they list their REO. Freddie Mac's is Homesteps.

I tried to find the same listing on the Fannie Mae site without much luck...got dizzy with their website,

But I found another:

http://www.homepath.com/listingdetail ... 7&pg=2&listingid=20925405

Looks like similar 2 Bedroom 2 Bath under contract for $250K. Looks legit. It seems that HomePath site might be a Fannie Mae subsidiary?

Of course there's no way without looking at the physical unit or at least inquiring further about the apartment number whether or not you are on the second floor with a lovely view of the garbage container.

I see they list HOA fees for this last unit at $865 (seems very high.) I presume that includes heat, hot water and central air conditioning? Does anyone have an approximation on the annual taxes or the "in lieu of" on a 2 bedroom, 2 bath?


Okay,
I think this might be the first listing with the price lowered slightly to $312K...17th (#1704) floor, nice it aimed NorthEast.

http://www.homepath.com/listingdetail ... no=017&listingid=20604664

Quote:

If they are accutally selling for this price it will depress RE values in the Beacon, not a good thing for the owners.

In one of the real estate throwaways for those interested:

THE BEACON: 2 Bedroom, 2 Full Baths, NE view, gourmet style kitchen??, 10' ceilings, Fannie Mae owned: $325,000

(How is Fannie Mae with low-balls?)

Another Mercury Lofts buyer comes forward in today's Metro NY issue:

http://www.metro.us/us/article/2010/03/03/02/0334-82/index.xml

wow, good for them. i can't even imagine what to do with all that space.

According to the NY Post blog today, five of those huge lofts at the Mercury Lofts building at The Beacon were sold in the last two weeks:

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/realest ... ng_pm2Sgj0AlRYOacTqEl6NDN

Huge children's entertainment center coming to The Beacon in Jersey City.

http://www3.timeoutny.com/newyork/kid ... ag/be-kids-at-the-beacon/


http://thebeaconkids.com/

The Bonus Bounce


Stephen Seremetis is in contract to buy a half-floor space at Mercury Lofts at the Beacon in Jersey City. Why now? A bonus, but more important, he thinks the time is right.

The New York Times
By HILARY STOUT
Published: February 4, 2010

IF the mix of optimism and uncertainty that pervades the New York residential real estate market right now can be symbolized by one property, a leading candidate may well be the penthouse at 1055 Park Avenue.


RIGHT THIS WAY An entrance at the Beacon, a former medical center turned condominium in Jersey City.

The two-bedroom two-bath duplex, atop a new all-glass condominium building on the narrowest of lots in one of the most exclusive of neighborhoods, went on the market on Oct. 5, at an asking price of $9.3 million. Within 17 days the price was slashed, to $7.5 million. And there it has stood.

Now, at last, a buyer has come along who wants to make an offer. But one thing is holding him back. He won?t proceed until he learns the exact dollar amount of the bonus he is expecting from his employer, a Wall Street bank.

And so it is with much of the New York-area market, from downtown lofts to Hamptons mansions. With the outsize bonus returning to Wall Street this year, brokers and sellers are holding their breath. For the past few months there have been signs that the market is reawakening, and an infusion of ?banker cash? could be just the catalyst it needs to spark a full-fledged recovery.

But just how powerful a force the bonus money will be is still in question. For all the bankers showing up at open houses, deal after deal seems to be in limbo, its fate hinging on bonus money, as with the penthouse at 1055 Park.

?The bankers are back,? said Pamela Liebman, the president of the Corcoran Group. But, she said, this year the effect is ?more about the confidence than the cash.?

By that she means that reports of large bonus pools at Wall Street firms have contributed to an overall sense among prospective buyers that things are getting better, not worse. And brokers say that the rise of the stock market last year, along with very low mortgage rates and prices that have sunk a good 20 to 25 percent below 2007 highs, had already started to calm the nerves of buyers at all income levels. Now there is a growing sense that the best deals will be history once the bonus buyers start signing contracts.

In one indication of increasing interest in higher-end properties, searches for listings of New York City homes priced above $2 million and above $5 million on the real estate search engine Trulia.com have grown significantly. In December 2009, the latest full month for which figures were available, searches for homes over $2 million grew 24 percent compared with December 2008. Searches for homes priced above $5 million increased 13 percent over the same period.

No one expects a return to the days when a banker, bonus in hand, went out, looked at five fancy properties in a day and picked one. Brokers say that Wall Street clients are much more careful in their shopping and deal-making these days ? and that, like everyone else, they are looking for bargains.

?Even my customers who are billionaires are shopping smart,? said Susan Breitenbach, a senior vice president at Corcoran in the Hamptons. Another change: many bonuses ? particularly those of the highest echelon of earners ? will be paid in stock this year, not cash, a curb on any impetus toward reckless spending.

Nevertheless, some transactions that seem more reminiscent of 2006 than the past year are starting to emerge:

In the Hamptons, a buyer from Wall Street paid $19 million for an oceanfront property in Sagaponack last month. Word is he plans to tear it down.

A three-bedroom condo at 1 Morton Square in the West Village went on the market for $2.75 million in early January. It was snapped up in just four days, for more than the asking price. There were three all-cash offers ? from a Goldman Sachs banker, from a banker at another Wall Street firm, and from someone in ?new media,? said Darren Sukenik, the listing broker and a managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The banker from the other Wall Street firm prevailed.

?It?s like this flight to sanity,? Mr. Sukenik said. People in finance aren?t using their bonus money to buy ?a red Ferrari or two weeks in St. Barts,? he explained. ?Now they?re using their bonuses to enter smart, sound real estate purchases.?

Given the outrage in some quarters over bonuses, house-hunting recipients are both discreet and reluctant to be interviewed.

?More important these days than ever before is anonymity, doing it under the radar,? said Tim Davis, a senior managing director at the Corcoran Group, who has been selling real estate in the Hamptons for 30 years. Most Wall Street buyers, he said, are ?staying away from high-profile properties, saying, ?I don?t want to be seen as buying X.? ?

Stephen Seremetis, 37, an executive director of investments at Oppenheimer & Company, is in contract to buy a 2,994-square-foot loft in a new Jersey City development called Mercury Lofts at the Beacon. The space has a 60-foot living room, 20 windows and, he says, ?phenomenal views? of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. (Amenities in the complex include a Bloomberg box, a clear sign that the place is catering to the Wall Street set.)

Mr. Seremetis said he was content with his bonus this year, but he stressed that it was not his only reason for buying. Instead, he said, after a year of searching in Manhattan, New Jersey and Long Island City, he became convinced that prices had fallen as low as they were going to go.

?It?s more the value now,? he said. ?Real estate has bottomed out, and it?s time to step in.?

Mr. Seremetis paid under $1 million, he said, for a half floor of space ? a bargain by Manhattan standards.

Traffic is up markedly at open houses all over the city for apartments with asking prices over $1 million, and buyers who work in finance account for 40 to 75 percent of the crowd. More than 100 people turned out for an open house for a two-bedroom in the Village a couple of weeks ago. The elevator broke, but people took the stairs without complaining.

Last Sunday, a frigid winter day, Kathryn Higgins, an associate broker at DJK Residential, accompanied clients to an open house at a prewar co-op in the East 80s. So many people showed up, she said, that ?for the first time in two years, I had to wait in the lobby. My mouth was hanging open.?

Although reports of large bonus pools at a number of firms have been widespread, some employees have yet to hear their personal ?number.? That will happen over the next several weeks.

Karin Posvar-Picket, a senior vice president at Corcoran, recently reached a deal on a four-bedroom condo for more than $4 million at the Georgica on the Upper East Side. But, she said, the buyer ?is waiting for his bonus to hit? before he proceeds with the closing.

One of her colleagues, Ms. Breitenbach in the Hamptons, had an offer on a property from a Wall Street buyer; the owner responded with a counteroffer. A day went by, but she heard nothing from the bidder. Ms. Breitenbach called his broker to find out what was going on. The answer: The buyer?s bonus was to be paid in stock, and he had to see how much he could borrow on it before he could raise his offer.

Wise bankers know that it?s best not to put the cart before the horse even when a fat payout is anticipated. Adrienne Albert, the chief executive of the Marketing Directors, a marketing and sales agent of residential real estate, said her firm lost a bonus-inspired sale at the Crystal Point luxury development on the Jersey City waterfront. The buyer, who had already signed a contract, backed out when she learned that her bonus would be smaller than she had hoped.

?It was heartbreaking for us,? Ms. Albert said.

But, behemoth bonus, so-so bonus or no bonus at all, buyers appear to be stirring from their fear and torpor. Take the recent bidding on a one-bedroom condo with a terrace on East Ninth Street.

The property was first listed in June 2009. ?We were holding open houses diligently every other week,? said the broker, Tristan Harper, a senior vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman. But the traffic was almost nonexistent. ?Zero to five parties, max,? Mr. Harper said. The seller took the property off the market for the December holidays, then put it back on in early January in hopes of benefiting from a bonus bounce. At the first open house, 18 parties showed up, 30 to 40 percent of them from Wall Street. Mr. Harper was stunned.

Within a day he had an offer. It was under the asking price of $1.049 million, but the owner was able to negotiate for a little more.

While the place was in contract, the seller received a significantly better offer ? above the asking price ? from two men. One of them worked on Wall Street.

Then the original bidder matched that offer with all cash. In the meantime, a third offer came in, but the specter arose of all three bidders? fleeing if a bidding war ensued, so the seller never really entertained it. The first bidder won, at a price slightly over asking.

?It was like the good times again,? Mr. Harper said.

Saw this feature on the Beacon and a resident in this month's New Jersey Monthly. Thought you mght be interested in reading...

http://njmonthly.com/articles/lifesty ... garden/the-high-life.html

The High Life

Luxurious river-view urban living in New Jersey? Check out these ultra-stylish homes.

New Jersey Magazine
Posted December 15, 2009
by Lauren Payne

The W, Hoboken




Before the bulldozers even broke ground, lifelong Hoboken resident Kimberly Glatt wrestled her way into a contract at the W Hotel and Residences to be built along the Hudson River waterfront. ?I always thought I wanted to live in a hotel,? she says, ?so when the building was announced, I pounced.?

Designed by renowned architects Gwathmey Siegel Associates, the sleek, 26-story hotel features 225 rooms and 40 loft-like condominiums, all facing Manhattan. Hoboken-based Applied Development Company sold all but a few units?at $925,000 to $2.75 million for one-, two-, or three-bedroom floorplans?before the building was finished.

Glatt, a retired judge in private practice in Hoboken, and her husband, Fort Lee attorney Jay Yacker, with their two teenage children, 18-year-old Evan and 15-year-old Alexa, were among the first to move into the building. In July 2009, the family relocated from a three-story house just a few blocks away to a 21st-floor, three-bedroom apartment. ?People may think this is indulgent, but really, hotel living is such a phenomenal concept,? says Glatt. ?Living in an urban environment, you get worn down just starting your day. But here, I get on the elevator, it smells good, people say hello...it?s a beautiful thing.? Their biggest splurge? Room service. ?We live on it,? says Glatt. ?Often we order three meals a day.?

***********************************************
The Beacon, Jersey City




Fate led Aidan McManus and his wife, Gloria Gussie, to buy a residence in the Beacon, the former Jersey City Medical Center undergoing a years-long $350 million restoration project?the largest in the history of the state. Art Deco buffs with no intention of moving from their 4,000-square-foot loft on the Jersey City waterfront, Gussie happened upon the 1930s building on an Art Deco homes tour.

?She called me and said, ?You have to come see this,?? says McManus. ?The rest, as they say, is history.? The couple, both IT executives in Manhattan, moved in December 2008, downsizing significantly to a 1,150-square-foot apartment on the nineteenth floor. Downsizing, though, never felt like a compromise. ?We were lucky enough to get 700 square feet of outdoor living space,? says McManus. ?That really took any compromise out of the picture.?

Ninety percent of the units have been sold in the first two buildings; developer Metrovest Equities recently commenced sales in the third. Prices start at $235,000 for a studio, $885,000 for a loft, and as high as $2.5 million for a penthouse. When complete, the Beacon will consist of 1,200 residences and 80,000 square feet of retail space.

?Beyond the obvious fact that it?s a beautiful building, it?s the amenities that really got us,? says McManus. Those amenities include a 25,000-square-foot fitness center and spa, public spaces such as a screening room and poker room, an on-site deli, and several outdoor areas. ?There?s even a fenced-in dog run,? says McManus, who has three English bulldogs. ?You don?t even need to leave the premises to walk the dogs.?

For more stories about: Jersey City, Hoboken, home design, Home Decor, home furnishings, Home and Garden
http://njmonthly.com/articles/lifesty ... garden/the-high-life.html

Halstead Property just posted a video on the new Mercury Lofts at The Beacon. Spaces look pretty amazing. Here's a link to the video:

http://www.halstead.com/properTV.aspx?video=E80FED5AF3

I live downtown. The historic name is Harsimus, but I tend to refer to it, VVP and HP as Grove Street. I chose this neighborhood, because it fit what I wanted and needed. That isn't to say that I can not respect other people's flavors. Further, none of us have anything to gain from bashing someone else's home, especially a home in Jersey City.

People would have called Newport a crazy Gamble 20-30 years ago, now look at it. As a distance runner, I've made my way through Bergen Ave, it's beautiful, but slightly scary. I realize that 20 years ago, the same could probably be said of my street downtown. Neighborhoods change, and urban neighborhoods have a habit of changing for the better.

The most useful transportation adage claims that people will always make a way to their destination. If you take a lane out of traffic, people will drive on a side street. 50 years ago, there was a trolley from the Heights to downtown, once removed, private minibuses replaced them. The Beacon has provided residents with a shuttle. Perhaps that makes the commute to New York (outside the PATH footprint) a bit less of an incentive, but downtown JC seems convenient.

I simply can not knock the Beacon because it seems like a bet on the success of Jersey City. It's a bet that the neighborhood will succeed and that downtown will yield high quality jobs. I also can't knock the Beacon because they pay taxes. By knocking something in JC, you knock down the value. You want high value, high quality housing outside of downtown, so we all can share the tax burden.

So stop your trash talk and root for your neighbors and your city.

For those that were curious about The Mercury maintenance fees just go to www.thebeaconjc.com and click on Mercury Lofts. The estimated fees along with photos and availability are posted there.