Page 5 - RE-NJ

EDITOR ’S
NOTE
ON THE GROUND
There aren’t many who give a tour
like Paul Silverman, who glides
from building to building in Jersey
City’s Hamilton
Park section,
greeting
business
owners
by name,
seamlessly
introducing
them and
rattling off
stories of how they arrived in the
neighborhood. All of it with the kind
of genuine pride and interest you’d
expect from someone who, along
with his brother Eric, has spent four
decades helping to improve the area
through thoughtful redevelopment
projects.
As you’ll read in this month’s
cover story, the fi rm known as
SILVERMAN is marking its latest
milestone in Hamilton Park with a
new mixed-use project just off the
fi ve-acre green space. Known as
Swift & Co., the nine-story building
houses 59 apartments and 80,000
square feet of commercial space
that’s now fully leased, housing a
mix of offi ce and retail users, as
well as an upscale, 20,000-square-
foot coworking lounge that’s home
to dozens of other entrepreneurs
and much-needed event space for
the community. It’s the Silverman
brothers’ latest addition to a
neighborhood where they’ve built
some 500 residential units and
150,000 square feet of commercial
space over 35 years, doing so with
a highly visible, hands-on style
and high level of engagement with
their tenants that has fostered an
ecosystem where many residents
live and work.
Our April issue also includes our
coverage of an event earlier this
year hosted by Morris Arts, the
nonprofi t that enjoys broad support
from commercial real estate leaders
in the region, where panelists
explored how art and design in
spaces can make people healthier
and happier. That’s essential
in hospitals, where employees
and visitors can feel vulnerable
or overwhelmed. Speakers also
pointed to the role of wellness and
social spaces in offi ce buildings,
™ 3
noting that design is increasingly
important as companies look to
attract talent and enforce return-to-
offi ce mandates.
Elsewhere in this edition, we
highlight a long-simmering legal
battle over a prime redevelopment
site at Mahwah’s train station. An
entity known as Mahwah Town
Center Redevelopers LLC, an
affiliate of JMF Properties and
MJC Capital, has long hoped to
replicate the type of mixed-use,
transit-oriented projects that the
firms have built across the state,
yet they say they’ve been stymied
by years of stall tactics and
legal obstructions by municipal
officials, often without explanation
or justification. Those tensions
came to a head recently when
the town designated the 3.8-acre
site as a blighted or so-called
condemnation redevelopment area,
allowing the governing body to
acquire it through eminent domain.
Litigation is now well underway
after the developers sued to
overturn the designation, which
they say is unnecessary because
of their intentions for the property
and illegal under the state’s
redevelopment law.
You can fi nd those stories and more
in the latest issue of Real Estate NJ,
as we kick off the second quarter
with a mixed economic picture.
The turmoil at the macroeconomic
level is undeniable, but it comes
amid continued activity and even
enthusiasm in some corners of our
local market. We’ll see how it plays
out in the months ahead as we
continue to bring you the latest here
at Real Estate NJ.
Until then, thanks for reading. Enjoy
the issue!
Joshua Burd
Editor
Iselin | Roseland
Red Bank | New York
greenbaumlaw.com
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