I clipped out the ad and lost it, but there also was an "investor wanted" ad in the Times that was posted by a guy who wanted to turn an "old Jersey City school house" with "great views" into condos.

I know the school board is still using P.S. 3, but maybe the advertiser was referring to P.S. 3 (on Bright, between Barrow and Grove), or a school up in the Heights.

NYTimes Link

Coming Soon: Affordable Views

New York Times
Nov. 18,2007

BAYONNE

NOW here?s something different: condominiums that will offer panoramic water views, clubhouse amenities, adjacent parks, and ferry or train commutes to Manhattan, but are not characterized by their developer as ?ultraluxury.?

They are not going to be ultraexpensive, either: the Hudson Bay Club here, which has sales opening in January, plans to ask under $300,000 for one-bedroom units, and start in the mid-$300,000s for two- or three-bedroom condos. The condos are on the Newark Bay side of Bayonne, where a modest revitalization has taken hold over the last few years.

The city, once an industrial powerhouse, is pinning dreams of a more expansive makeover on the other side of its peninsula, facing New York City. There, it plans to redevelop a huge former naval base; builders have already been chosen for projects that are to create a total of 6,700 housing units, 750 hotel rooms, 340,000 square feet of retailing, 465,000 square feet of cultural space, and 242,000 square feet of civic space.

The scale of the project is even more massive than what has taken place in neighboring Jersey City and Hoboken.

But city authorities estimate that transforming Bayonne in such fashion could take 15 to 30 years. In the interim, small-scale progress is occurring on the city?s west side, where public improvements have attracted private developers.

Near the Hudson Bay Club condo site, there is a new wetlands park with a biking trail, and a boardwalk meandering through a marshy area. Also, a ?pocket park? was created on the tip of the point of land where construction vehicles are now busily at work, preparing the property for construction. And the city has spruced up and polished a beautiful older park, the rambling Stephen R. Gregg.

The Hudson-Bergen light rail system has been extended, providing a connection to Jersey City?s PATH trains to Manhattan.

The Hudson Bay Club?s builder, Baker Residential, a company based in Pleasantville, N.Y., that likes to focus on ?urban infill? projects with waterside access, has already completed two condo projects not far away in its Newark Bay-side development.

The first, in 2004, was the Boatworks, a community of 160 town homes built on the site where John F. Kennedy?s World War II PT-109 was assembled and launched; a refurbished marina there now berths private crafts.

Next came Bay Harbor Club, 31 condos in a four-story building right on the bay; the project went up on what had been an empty acre sandwiched between houses in a long-established neighborhood.

The Bay Harbor building served as a model for the five condo structures that will rise at Hudson Bay Club, housing a total of 158 units, said Clark D. Atwood, Baker?s general manager in New Jersey.

The elevator-equipped buildings all have abundant windows and balconies, and assigned parking spaces in an underground garage.

It took longer than expected to get the Hudson Bay Club project under way because of an arduous cleanup of chromium-contaminated soil that had to be completed by the former landowner, Honeywell International, Mr. Atwood said. State environmental authorities certified that the land was safe several months ago, he added.

The Hudson Bay Club condos, which are offered in 27 different floor plans, will range in size from 1,000 to 1,700 square feet, he said. The penthouse units will have two levels.

Mimicking what has become routine in buildings in Gold Coast communities, the Hudson Bay clubhouse will offer a fitness center, an entertainment hall, a kitchen and an outdoor pool. Each building will also have its own landscaped terrace.

In the first two projects, Mr. Atwood added, many of the buyers could not have afforded the same lifestyle in Hoboken and Jersey City, but were able to secure it ?one train stop further down the line.?

The water views on the western side of Bayonne are quite dissimilar to the eastern ones: busy shipping docks instead of open river; the Bayonne and Vincent R. Casciano bridges instead of the George Washington and Verrazano-Narrows; the skyline of Newark, rather than New York.

On the other hand, what separates the two sides is only about half a dozen blocks.

The ferry terminal is on the river side, at the site of the as-yet-unstarted, more massive redevelopment, as is a Royal Caribbean Cruises home port established three years ago. ?Water, water, everywhere,? Mr. Atwood said. ?Bayonne has some unique water views ? very busy, very intriguing and very affordable.?

NYTimes Link