Plans for West Side Square at 66 Broadway in Jersey City call for 477 apartments ranging from studio to three-bedroom homes and 9,814 square feet of ground-level retail space. — Rendering courtesy: MHS Architecture
By Joshua Burd
A development team has broken ground on a long-awaited project in Jersey City, where it’s slated to build nearly 500 new apartments and retail space that will help link the burgeoning Journal Square and West Side neighborhoods.
The Toronto-based partnership, known as the West Side Square Development Fund, is planning a summer 2026 delivery for the property at the northwest corner of Broadway and West Side Avenue. Its plans call for 477 rental units ranging from studio to three-bedroom homes, with a location that is less than a mile from the Journal Square Transportation Center.
The site is also directly south of the tracks that run to and from the Journal Square PATH station, providing an opportunity that city officials have long discussed and were eager to highlight on Wednesday. As Mayor Steve Fulop noted, the tracks are above ground, while the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey already has a stop nearby that is currently for employees only.
“It is an easy place for New Jersey and the Port Authority to create a new PATH stop, which we’ve been advocating for, and to further energize this whole area,” Fulop said during a groundbreaking ceremony. “It would have a transformational impact on the West Side of Jersey City. And if you take a step back from a reasonability standpoint and just say ‘Things will happen if they are reasonable,’ it is just a matter of time until it does happen, but we just need to stay persistent to make sure that people are aware of it.
“So thank you for believing in the area, thank you for investing in the area, thank you for being partners in the area, and we look forward to great things here on the West Side of Jersey City and with this project in particular.”
The team behind West Side Square includes LanTree Developments, Altree Developments Inc., Lanterra Developments Inc. and Westdale Construction Co., all of which are based in Canada. MHS Architecture has designed the multibuilding project, which will redevelop a site that once housed Puccini’s restaurant, while Sordoni Construction Co. serves as general contractor.
Lanterra Chairman Mark Mandelbaum noted Wednesday that “there’s a lot of real estate development going on in Canada with an eye to value,” allowing the West Side neighborhood to resonate with the investment group. He also cited the planning around the parcel that would allow it to accommodate a potential PATH station.
“The West Side of Jersey City is just ripe for development,” Mandelbaum said. “It’s the outgrowth of Journal Square, and we are very, very confident that that’s going to happen.”
In addition to the project’s upscale apartments, designed by Childs Dreyfus Group, plans at West Side Square call for 9,814 square feet of ground-level retail space. Residents will also have access to amenities such as an outdoor deck with a swimming pool, grilling stations, seating and lounging areas and a dog run, along with indoor features such as a fitness center, co-working spaces and a community room for private events.
The project comes amid the ongoing construction boom in Journal Square and the West Side. Fulop, who also highlighted the role of Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey, pointed to the Bayfront development that will bring some 8,000 units to a massive site off Route 440, along with the addition of hundreds of market-rates rentals in recent years near New Jersey City University’s campus.
“Our housing starts here, which have been at an astronomical rate, is the same as it was in 2021 when the economic environment and interest rates were very, very different,” Fulop said. “It says a lot about Jersey City overall, about our planning department, our (Jersey City Redevelopment Agency) — the fact that we’re able to move things forward in a very quick way. And it says a lot about the commitment from the financial side and the belief that Jersey City is still in the early stages of its potential.”
