One of the real estate offices on Grove Street has a sign in the window that says they are now selling Gull's Cove Phase 2 ... anybody know if construction is supposed to start?

I have heard rumors that Gull's Cove Phase 2 will be a rental building instead of condos.

It's almost impossible to get funding for a condo tower.

Quote:

I'm not entirely sure what that means. But if you mean that there is an increasingly large number of rental buildings, yes, that is probably true. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. 70% of Manhattan is a renter household; they aren't doing too poorly.

It seems that Jersey City is becoming one big rental facade with a congestion of apartment buildings.

I think the real issue happening right now is that there is a great deal of demand for rentals -- within a reasonable price -- and not much demand for buying.

For a good point of comparison, 225 Grand Street, the rental next to Gulls Cove, is more or less filled while Gulls Cove still has condos for sale.

Part of it is I think that Jersey City is still fairly appealing to young people not so eager to buy, part of it is the economy.

It would make sense that Metro Homes is going to redo the plans for Gulls Cove II with more 1 bedrooms. Liberty Harbor is converting most of the large townhouses to 1-bedroom condos as well.

But with all the inventory coming on relatively soon in Liberty Harbor I wonder if Metro Homes might wait a bit before starting, as the market may not be able to bear that much capacity all at once (20-30 units at Liberty Harbor plus many more at Gulls Cove.)

I have heard from a couple of semi-reliable sources that Metro Homes is trying to now change the plans to allow for more smaller units. They have had a lot more luck selling one bedrooms than they have selling 2 and 3 bedrooms. And apparently part of Gulls Cove 2 was to include a row of "townhouses" that look like to be way outside the price point of the market.

With respect to the retail, when we were considering purchasing there in 2007, we were told that there were 3 tenants all ready for the commercial space. Sawa, Kindercare, and Wachovia Bank.

Wachovia crashed a couple of months later. So that was off the table.

Kindercare eventually backed off, but was replaced by the Early Learning Center.

Sawa tried to get out almost as soon as they started building. Supposedly Metro homes and Sawa renegotiated the lease, but it is clear now that Sawa has no intention to build out and is just waiting until someone else comes by.

There is a dry cleaner/alterations facility coming in, and I have seen the plans for that.

And I heard the other day that the proprietor of The Melting Pot was looking at the Sawa space, but that any deal is far off and still speculative.

Sawa is opening soon.










Or not.

Quote:

Don't hold your breath on the retail. The first phase was supposed to have three retail businesses and after three years a day care (not what I think of as "retail") is the only thing to show for it. Actually, I wouldn't hold my breath on any of it - I doubt Geibel/MetroHomes has the money (or access to financing) to do much of anything.

Completion date really depends on the availability of financing for residential projects. More large rental apartment buildings will go up in the next 2-3 years. Condos????????????

Interesting. When do you think we can expect Liberty Harbor to finally be complete ... in 20 years or so?

There are new projects proposed with new designs being worked on - some taller than originally conceived. These renderings are not online - won't be until the final designs are approved.

Does anybody know of a site that has renderings of various future buildings within LHN?

I Googled, but could only really find one rendering.

Cool, thanks guys.

If you are talking about the concrete slab with all the blue piping coming out of it, that would be Gulls Cove Phase 2. The lot just left of this where presently a mediocre impression of a park is will continue to be a park. The lot between this "park" and the beer garden will be another multistory Liberty Harbor apartment building, about the same height as the other bigger buildings in LHN. There is a model in the LHN offices showing the building.

I suspect as the occupancy rate in LHN rises construction will begin. LHN is finishing off that last set of row houses that had been for the better part of two years just framed out shells.

There's a 2nd phase to Gull's Cove - 90 more units and 5,000 square feet of retail.

I've always noticed the lot south of the Boys and Girls Club, just west of Gull's Cove. Does anybody know what is planned for that lot?