The Jersey City skyline
By Joshua Burd
A newly launched development firm has announced plans to bring some 2,000 apartments to Jersey City, part of a $1.5 billion project led by several high-profile industry executives.
Known as Esen, the company includes several veterans of Brookfield Properties and Forest City with ties to well-known projects such as Barclays Center in Brooklyn, The Yards in Washington, D.C., and Fifth + Broadway in Nashville. They now hope to bring that expertise to the Hudson waterfront, where they’re planning three multifamily towers near the Harborside district.
The firm said the first building is slated to break ground next summer, reportedly at 310 Washington St., with completion expected in early 2029. Towers two and three will come in subsequent phases, adding to the mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom homes.
Esen is partnering in the project with Evergreen, the global shipping and transportation conglomerate, in the first of what it described as impactful, innovative and community-focused urban developments. The development also calls for more than 30,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space, including a pedestrian-only corridor linking Washington Street and Greene Street and a central courtyard and plaza adjacent to Harborside Park, while residents will have unobstructed views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.
They’ll also be steps from the city’s new Whole Foods Market, Grove Street’s thriving retail corridor and the Grove Street and Exchange Place PATH stations.
“This project embodies the scale, ambition and collaborative spirit that define Esen,” said Matt Elsesser, CEO of the New York-based firm. “We’re proud to be launching with a development project of this magnitude in partnership with a world-class organization like Evergreen, and to continue our legacy of delivering exceptional urban developments that bring lasting value to cities and communities.”
The firm teased the project while describing a leadership team that also includes:
- Chairman: Jim Chang, the founder, executive chairman and CEO of Singapore-based investment platforms The Croesus Group and Everglory Group, with diversified holdings across real estate, infrastructure, transportation and financial asset management in Asia and the United States.
- CEO: Elsesser, the former U.S. head of development for logistics at Brookfield Properties, where he oversaw an active pipeline of more than 15 million square feet of ground-up logistics development across North America. He’s also Brookfield’s former president of commercial development, in charge of all mixed-use projects across North America, and served as chief development officer for Forest City.
- Chief investment officer: C. David Boillot, who most recently was managing director and CIO of Croesus and Co., where he oversaw the investment in and development of more than 2,500 apartments in addition to 1 million square feet of commercial space.
- Chief development officer: Jason Bonnet, former head of commercial development for the East Coast region for Brookfield, where he managed over $7 billion in project pipeline.
Additional key Esen partners include Kate Bicknell, Joginder Singh, Loren Morgan, Jeff Morrow, Shaw Henry, Mike May, Lori Sindelar and Martha Gurule, the firm said last week.
