Having built nearly 800 apartments in an emerging section in Jersey City, veteran developer Sandy Weiss and his firm now hope to replicate that approach — seeking to build on their experience of trying to build a new neighborhood from scratch. The company is the designated master redeveloper for about four city blocks just east of the New Jersey Turnpike extension, where it has proposed building more than 2,300 apartments for a mix of income levels.
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Go inside the latest monthly issue of Real Estate NJ, the only New Jersey-based magazine dedicated to commercial real estate in the Garden State.
Long overdue
In our July issue, we detail the efforts of New Jersey’s largest brokerage and service firms to support diversity and inclusion among their employees. This is nothing new for industry giants like CBRE, JLL and Cushman & Wakefield, but it’s become increasingly clear that these efforts are critical to recruitment, retention and overall employee culture. It’s why you’ll find these firms taking pains to promote and cultivate networking groups tied to gender, racial, lifestyle and other forms of diversity. That only stands to grow in our own local market and globally.
Making a market: Developers, city officials look ahead as renters arrive in downtown Newark
A new stock of luxury, market-rate apartments is beginning to take shape in downtown Newark, where stakeholders hope to attract the type of rental population that can create a 24-hour, seven-day neighborhood that has long eluded the central business district.
Developers say they’re encouraged by the early returns, but are preparing for the market to be tested by larger-scale projects and an influx of additional units. City officials are also preparing for what could be a dramatic uptick in interest from builders — which they will have to balance with public policy goals such as expanding affordable housing for Newark residents.
Taking cues
Newark’s dedicated blue-chip employers and anchor institutions have virtually all expanded or made commitments to grow, leading to billions of dollars’ worth of new commercial development. It’s a major reason why developers believe the time is right to, once and for all, bring new market-rate apartments to Newark’s central business district.
The next chapter in affordable housing in New Jersey
Since 2015, more than 280 towns in New Jersey have signed settlement agreements for their affordable housing obligations, while a judge has determined the statewide need to be about 155,000 units and experts project that about 50,000 of those will be created by 2025. Frankly, the court process is way too far down the road to try and move it back to the Council on Affordable Housing or another state agency. But that is not to say there are not some issues worth discussing as we move forward.
Developers see new, long-awaited opportunities in Red Bank
Red Bank is now embracing redevelopment and smart growth concepts more than it has in recent memory, insiders say, as evidenced by the growing list of projects that are now under construction or in its pipeline. That embrace is a long time coming for developers that have seen all the community has to offer — from its popular downtown to the Navesink River waterfront, along with a rich cultural scene and an affluent population.
