Page 28 - RE-NJ

26 JANUARY 2026
COVID-19 and the Federal Reserve’s
subsequent tightening cycle created
challenges.
The results are obvious after 12
years, but they were also evident in
real time. Fulop, who has likely been
to hundreds of groundbreakings or
ribbon-cutting ceremonies, said it
was always “a good sign that people
are investing in the city at the rate
that they are, but it does become a
blur sometimes.”
That’s not to say that he ever took
them for granted or became jaded by
the scale of the buildings. He said the
view from a rooftop amenity deck,
where ribbon-cuttings are often held,
never gets old. That’s especially true
for buildings in places like Bergen-
Lafayette — where residents can see
not only Manhattan but downtown
Jersey City and Liberty State Park
— or Journal Square, which is more
than 90 feet above sea level and
thus signifi cantly higher than the
waterfront, providing an unmatched
vantage point.
“Ribbon-cuttings in those areas,
to me, are different because you
don’t have such an appreciation
until you’re actually up there of
what those things look like,” he
said. “Jersey City is just blessed to
be in the proximity of that skyline,
the Statue of Liberty and the type
of housing stock that we have with
older homes as well as newer homes.
It’s just an unbelievable place from a
city urban development standpoint.”
He also points to the views for
anyone driving in on the New Jersey
Turnpike’s Newark Bay Extension.
“I look at how the Jersey City skyline
blends in with the New York skyline
and I take tremendous pride in that,”
Fulop said. “And I’m excited by the
fact that we’ve been able to grow the
city like that and that it has such a
skyline now that it rivals any city in
FULOP URGES SOLOMON TO
down,” said Fulop, who leaves offi ce
in January after overseeing a massive
affordable housing and are built by
EMBRACE GROWTH, LEAVE ‘COMFORT
development boom as mayor. “And
union labor is not possible without
that’s where people are always
tax abatements
ZONE’ AS JERSEY CITY’S NEXT MAYOR
concerned about this sort of thing.”
and other tools,
the kind that
The outgoing mayor, who did not
Solomon has
Steve Fulop never saw himself as a
20-year mayor, he said recently, citing
a belief that “transition in cities is
healthy … and it’s healthy to have a
new set of eyes and new ideas.”
anti-development in the name of
run for a fourth term while seeking
attacked as both
improving affordability. That’s stoking
the Democratic nomination for
a councilman
uncertainty for some in the private
governor, called on Solomon to think
and a candidate.
sector as a new administration steps in
pragmatically as he moves ahead.
for the fi rst time in 12 years.
It all “comes
“I think most people would
down to math,”
Not everyone is embracing change,
as even he acknowledged, after a
campaign by Mayor-elect James
Solomon that was decidedly
“The business community recognizes
acknowledge that, in order to solve
that it takes a long time to build a city,
Fulop said,
the affordability crisis, you have to
but these things are fragile and it takes
adding: “There are other markets
have market-rate housing and growth,”
very short amount of time to tear it
that people can invest in, and if it’s
Fulop said. “And even at times, despite
not a pro-growth environment where
what the NIMBYs say — the ‘not in
you have a partner that’s reasonable,
my backyard’ folks — you’ve got to
they’re going to go elsewhere.”
push through that. If you’re going
to placate everybody as mayor and
“We’ll see what he changes and what
try to make everybody happy, you’re
the new council changes,” he added.
really not going be successful with
“But the hope is that they continue a
accomplishments. Because the reality
pro-growth agenda.
is that, if you move a city forward, at
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop was on hand in June 2023 to break ground on an
802-unit luxury apartment tower at 420 Marin Blvd., the latest phase of the sweeping
redevelopment known as Hudson Exchange.•
JOHNCARVALHO
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the country.” RE
requiring that projects have 20 percent
James Solomon
“The good thing is that James is a
times you’ve got to show leadership
smart guy and, in my experience, he’s
and venture outside of that comfort
reasonable. And he obviously cares a
zone — and hopefully lead people to a
lot about the city. So the hope is that
place of why your vision, your goal, is
he recognizes that the campaign was
positive for them long-term.”
one phase of this thing. He’s gotten
Fulop was steadfast that Solomon
elected. Now you’ve got to deliver
will need to govern differently than
some results, and not everything you
he campaigned when it comes to
say in the campaign, unfortunately, is a
development. For one thing, he said,
reality of what you can achieve.”
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