Developer trading park space for permission to add floors

Originally appeared in the Jersey Journal on Tuesday, January 25, 2005
By Molly Bloom

The developers of a residential tower in Downtown Jersey City, set to begin construction in the spring, will donate land for a park between First and Second streets in exchange for permission to build taller than was originally planned.

Eric Silverman, of Washington First URC, and Ed Brown, of Athena, presented revised plans to the city Redevelopment Agency board last week for a 32-story tower on Washington Boulevard and First Street, in the Hudson Exchange Redevelopment area.

Previous plans for the building included fewer stories. The project has been approved by the Planning Board and was presented to the JCRA for review, though that agency was not required to vote on it.

The building would include 200 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail space and 50,000 square feet of office space. All the space will be rented at market rate, said Silverman, who is a principal of Exeter Properties, a residential developer with 25 buildings in the Hamilton Park neighborhood. The company also plans to build housing on the site of St. Francis Hospital, on McWilliams Place, which it bought last week.

The groundbreaking on the Washington Boulevard building will begin in late spring and construction will be completed by winter 2006, according to plans presented to the board.

The brick-faced building was designed to "replicate the warehouse feel" of the neighborhood, said Silverman. One sharp corner of the building will be sheathed in glass and the ground-level parking garage will be fitted with arched metal grates.

Developer Vincent Wilt of Morgan Point LLC presented the board with plans for a building with 84 apartments above ground-floor retail space on a triangular site between Morgan Street, Steuben Street and Luis Muņoz Marin Boulevard.

Wilt is a principal of the Hoboken-based Greentree construction, which is currently renovating a 90-year-old refurbished warehouse at 140 Bay St. in Jersey City.

The Morgan Point building, which is in the Powerhouse Arts District Redevelopment Area, will feature loft-like market-rate apartments selling for about $400 per square foot, Wilt said. It will feature a "stepped-down" design, with eight stories on one side stepping up to a total height of 12 stories, he said.