Couldn't find the full list, but here are a few: March 30 Abandoned Properties List

Is there a database that provides the actual addresses of all of these abandoned properties?

The 30-story Grove Pointe tower has 458 rental units.
The lower portion has 50 condo units.
There are 2 addresses and a separate lobby for each.

Coincy wrote:
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I am pretty sure a property is a building, condo, or lot that is listed on the JC property tax rolls. I recall from the re evaluation discussions there are approximately 40K properties to be re evaluated. So that number makes sense.

Grove Pointe is an apartment building complex right???. So it is considered one property. If Grove Pointe had condos each condo in the building would be a separate property. ( on the tax roll)

Grove Pointe at 100 Christopher Columbus Drive had big as* abatements.

***

Adding I don't know if GP has apartments or condos.

There is one tax entry for 100 CC Dr. and many for 102 Christopher Columbus. I guess GP is a mix of apartments and condo's???

Honestly, I am OK with it for now since the last two out of the three properties I purchased were abandon.

If you do your home work you can buy most of the properties out there and most times for less than 50k, but the city will never tell the public that.

I am currently looking at a block in Bergen Lafayette that has three clustered together, I am hoping to purchase before the city gets its act together. :)

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Abatement for the areas that need them, sure, but this is never quite the case here. West Bergen, GV, Heights, BL, can all use some help, but that never seems to happen here. I know so many people living in BL or GV who live steps away from abandon properties and the city has not done a damn thing. It was mentioned a while back the city was going to take action on most of them and perhaps even auction some of the off, but that seems to be just more BS from the city. It makes me think back to when Bret Schundler?s innovative policies, called a "national model for urban reform" by Time Magazine, reversed these
trends. His policing policies reduced crime by over 40%. His tax cuts saved residents their homes. His pro-growth
economic policies slashed unemployment. Indeed, during his tenure, Jersey City enjoyed ten times the job growth of
New Jersey's five other largest cities combined and, according to a Harvard University study, led the 100 largest
cities in America not only in job growth, but also in poverty reduction. By the time he left office, far from the brink of
bankruptcy, Jersey City?s property values had sky-rocketed and its tax collection rate had risen to over 99%.
Schundler credits these successes to his introduction of market mechanisms into the provision of public services. In
his first full term in office, Schundler pioneered the securitization of property tax liens ? an initiative that Investment... hmmmmm those were the days...

Is the list published somewhere?

Anyone know what constitutes a property? Does, for example, Grove Pointe constitute one property or the total number of apartments in the building?

What's missing is any sense of whether or not a 2.4% rate of abandoned buildings is at all of the norm for a city. It's obviously better than Camden, Paterson, Detroit and probably places like Phili and Baltimore as well.

It seems like a good program and I'm glad they're tracking it but I doubt this rate puts JC in any sort of unique category.

This email quotes the one right before it (sorry I messed up the quoting somehow).

There's an idea. 227 Montgomery Street is an abandoned property as well. I also tried to look up the owners of 85 Steamboat Drive in Warminster, PA , it is a an empty warehouse currently up for sale but the Bucks County, PA Register of Deeds charges you a fee to look up their property records online (kudos to JC ftoo or making that function free). I'd try to take the property myself under adverse possession laws but that would take something like 17 1/2 years and I like my own place too much. I just don't have it in me to break a lock or window and then live in a place continuously for 17 1/2 years and I wouldn't need to if the city would just do its job, rather than simply preying on the people who actually make an effort with their own homes, living in them and keeping them in presentable shape.

I can't imagine what this is like in a place like Trenton or Camden - I can understand the city having a hard time keeping up with it. But 950 properties, many of which are in areas where people want to buy, should be something this city could tackle instead of kicking around the people who are easy to hassle.

If there's anything good to be said about this website, it's that it keeps at least some percentage of the JC crazies at home.

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Hey caj11 why don't you turn your property ownership into LLC. INC. this way you won't get a ticket like the guy on 7th St. the owner of that property L & J PROPERTIES, L.L.C. the tax record states that he lives at 227 Montgomery St. under the same name, I bet he doesn't even live at either of them. However he also owns 86 Essex St. but this location states he lives at 85 STEAMBOAT DRIVE in WARMINSTER, PA. 18974. Now he might go under other names of other properties that he owns here in J.C. By the way don't do a PO Box other wise the city can track where you live by the box you rented. Had the city researched this property more they would have known he owns other properties with his home address listed but still a corporate name though.

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Don't give the current administration any more ideas. They've given out more than enough abatements and my property taxes continue to rise. They've attracted plenty of development but like any city, Jersey City has its share of
a--hole property owners (i.e. "investors") that are from out of town and just buy properties to sit on them until some other bigger developer wants to buy them. There is an eyesore on 331.5 7th Street that has been sitting there for well over a year and it seems like all the city has done has post a notice on the door. Nothing has happened with the property, although whoever owns the property has been timely paying their property taxes according to the tax records, so I guess the city can't file a lien and doesn't care too much if the taxes are paid on time. I, on the other hand, follow the laws and pay my taxes, but went through hell and high water to get a simple porch built out in my back yard (which is in improvement that increases the taxable value of the property) and get nailed for putting a few pieces of wood outside with my garbage because that has to be picked up by another city agency. I give the city kudos for the list of abandoned properties but they don't seem to be doing much else, probably because it is too hard, whereas the rest of us who live here and do our best to follow the rules get sh-t on all the time for the slightest infraction, because we are easy prey for the inspectors. Let's not forget how well they treat the large-scale developers too, I assume because of the nicely padded envelopes that are given out at that diner up the hill.

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user1111,
I am no way a fan of our current administration. I think they suck big time.
Regardless, if the WSJ article is accurate, I would give the current administration credit for maintaining a database of abandoned properties.
I don't see how Jersey City Government can be held accountable for job creation and the housing bust.
Perhaps I am missing something?
Best!

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So with this in mind the city should increase the abatements. We're not attracting enough development here then.

It is pretty disgusting, when you look at it on the map they provided. This administration has completely failed the people.

Jersey City Taking Aim at Vacancies

The Wall Street Journal
NY REAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL
May 6, 2012, 10:03 p.m.

By HEATHER HADDON

JERSEY CITY, N.J.?A historic Episcopalian church left to be claimed by squatters; an abandoned house where police discovered a dead body on the front porch; a vacant brownstone overrun with weeds after its overseer was arrested on bank fraud.

As this gritty former manufacturing town tries to reinvent itself, officials have been wrestling with a stubborn phenomenon of urban blight: hundreds of abandoned buildings. About 950 of the roughly 40,000 properties in this waterfront city were classified as abandoned in a recent count, a number that city officials attribute to the housing-market collapse.

"Almost every block in this city has a vacant building on it," said Mark Redfield, assistant director for housing code enforcement in Jersey City. "It's really a horrible thing for society."

Jersey City officials fanned out across the city in March to flag vacant buildings and add them to a growing registry?part of an aggressive use of the Garden State's abandoned properties law. One of the toughest in the nation, the law allows local governments to set up abandoned property registries, require owners to join them and compel scofflaw landlords to do something with their buildings and pay their property taxes.

If property owners don't respond, the city can take them to court to acquire the properties to sell them or tear them down for redevelopment.

At least 36 other municipalities have undertaken similar efforts, but few with the zeal of Jersey City, said Diane Sterner, executive director of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, a nonprofit. Irvington, Newark, Orange and Paterson have also been assertive practitioners of the law's powers, she said.

The registries have become popular across the country as cities look for tools to clean up after the recession and the housing bust, said Alan Mallach, a Brookings Institution resident who focuses on housing. Hundreds of towns have voluntary registries, he said.

"New Jersey is only part of the picture," he said. "It's certainly a major trend."

In Jersey City, the vacancies are situated throughout the gentrifying city, from lower-income areas in the south and west to the city's tonier neighborhoods around Grove Street. Some of the worst streets have several vacant properties per block.

At least 406 properties have been officially registered and another 200 are going to court. The rest are in the process of being registered or served with warrants, Mr. Redfield said.

At least 150 vacant properties that were deteriorating are now being rehabbed, and 15 others were demolished, he said.

The city inspects the properties at least every 45 days to assess their conditions and publishes a list of them periodically in the legal notices of local newspapers and on the city's website.

New Jersey's law?the Abandoned Properties Rehabilitation Act?was passed in 2004 during the housing boom and wasn't used much until the bubble burst in 2008, Ms. Sterner said.

Beyond Jersey City, city administrators have identified 3,330 abandoned properties in Newark, Paterson, Orange and Irvington, she said.

Under the act, a property is defined as "abandoned" if it is unoccupied for six months before inspection. It also must be a nuisance, uninhabitable or have an owner who is delinquent on property taxes.

The law gives the city the power to seize property through "spot eminent domain." Owners who don't respond to notifications from the city are at risk of having their buildings taken over by the government and the property sold.

The real-estate industry has opposed vacant property registries nationwide, arguing that they are cumbersome. Real-estate developers have also said that local governments already had a powerful tool at their disposal?placing property tax liens on buildings owned by scofflaw landlords.

"That's the best way to do it. Eventually the lien is going to be paid off," said Len Rosenberg, a New Jersey real-estate owner at West Hudson Management.

Jersey City officials argue that its registry has been effective. Mayor Jerramiah Healy said in a statement that the "aggressive approach" has helped improved Jersey City neighborhoods in the wake of the real-estate collapse.

Vacant homes depress property values, and officials said the city loses tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes every year due to abandoned buildings. Officials also expect to recoup some property taxes from owners who haven't paid them or through redeveloping the lots they obtain in court.

The city spends roughly $100,000 a year to maintain and secure vacant properties, according to city estimates. Further, the registry has generated $101,000 in revenue for Jersey City from owners who paid the $250 fee for being on the list, said Mr. Redfield.

Many of Jersey City's vacant buildings are in foreclosure, while others are unsold investment properties.

The Episcopalian church where homeless people slept, for example, had gone into bankruptcy. Since its appearance on the registry, the owners have cleaned up the property and installed a fence to deter future intruders, Mr. Redfield said.

The downtown brownstone is also being fixed up by its owner, who hadn't realized that her property manager had been arrested, he said.

And as for the building with the dead body, the owner still hasn't responded and the city is maintaining it. If the owner doesn't respond within 60 days of the original notice, the city can force the matter into court.

If the owner does register, city officials can better communicate with a known entity, as owners often hide behind limited liability companies, Mr. Mallach said.

Statewide, there has been no academic study on the effectiveness of the registries, and it takes a dedication of city resources to make them work, Mr. Mallach said. He called Jersey City's approach "creative."

"It's easy to pass an ordinance, but it's work to make it real," he said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001 ... 04577374431116383966.html